Word: indexable
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...their inventories so fast that store stocks plummeted $1.9 billion in barely 30 days. On an annual rate, the fantastic cutbacks would reduce U.S. retail stocks (currently $23.4 billion) to almost zero by the end of 1958. As a result of the cutbacks, the Federal Reserve Board industrial production index dropped three points to 133 in January...
...separate countries. Djakarta customs officers inspect the luggage of Sumatra-bound passengers as if they were flying to a hostile country. In contrast to Djakarta, Colonel Simbolon's Padang was remarkably peaceful, secure, and spotlessly clean. It was also much healthier economically. Padang's cost-of-living index has risen 77 points in the last five years against 144 for Djakarta; bartering its rubber with Singapore produces an estimated $1,500,000 a month in profits. When Djakarta seized eight South Sumatran ships in an effort to halt the barter trade, the rebels quickly got them released...
...most frequently quoted indexes, the Federal Reserve's monthly industrial-production index is widely regarded as a measure of total economic activity. Actually it measures current activity only in mining and manufacturing, which have been declining and ignores both construction and public-utilities output, which have been rising steadily, as well as the service industries, which employ the majority of workers and change very little during boom or recession. Thus the production index has dropped 7-4% in the past year, even though there has been nothing like a 7% drop in all economic activity. Says a Government economist...
Another factor is retail sales, on which there is no comprehensive up-to-date statistic. The most current is the Federal Reserve's weekly index of department-store sales, which shows that sales are on the rise. But since it covers, only 6.7% of all retail sales and does not include many important items, e.g., autos, economists are not sure whether overall spending is still on the rise or has dropped...
What is needed even more than an improvement in basic indexes is the integration of all the indexes into one overall, up-to-date index that could tell economists at a glance where the economy stands. Last fall the Joint Economic Committee recommended such an index, but Congress must first appropriate money to improve existing indexes. Until some overall measure of the economy's health is worked out, the Government will find the job of managing the economy by credit and other fiscal tools harder than it should be, for present indicators do not give enough facts on where...