FRED, the St. Louis Fed data repository, has added 286 new indicators of uncertainty.

FRED Expands World Uncertainty Index Data

The St. Louis Fed announces FRED Expands World Uncertainty Index Data

FRED has added 286 new indicators of uncertainty, expanding the World Uncertainty Index portion of the Economic Policy Uncertainty release with indexes for individual countries. These indexes—developed by Hites Ahir (International Monetary Fund), Nicholas Bloom (Stanford University), and Davide Furceri (International Monetary Fund)—determine uncertainty using the frequency of the word “uncertainty” (and its variants) in the quarterly Economist Intelligence Unit country reports.

One Certainty

There is one amusing certainty in the World Uncertainty Index.

It’s useless.

And of course it is not even clear what the hell this is measuring.

Finally, if and when economists are ever certain about something non-trivial, they will be wrong.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock