US Historic Economic Data

[Rotku]

Anyone know a good source for historic US data? As a non-American I really don't know where to begin (and google isn't overly helpful this time). In particular, looking for import/export data from pre-1957. Unfortunately, I can only seem to find post-1960 data, which isn't exactly what I'm after.

[Stormseeker]

hmm i know a lot of the records for the eastern seaboard was lost when the towers fell.

[NickD]

hmm i know a lot of the records for the eastern seaboard was lost when the towers fell.

I got chewed out by a New Yorker recently by saying the towers fell down. It's a bit of a flippant term for such a tragic event... I kind of got his point.

[paazin]

Anyone know a good source for historic US data? As a non-American I really don't know where to begin (and google isn't overly helpful this time). In particular, looking for import/export data from pre-1957. Unfortunately, I can only seem to find post-1960 data, which isn't exactly what I'm after.

Fluff might know a good resource.

My best guess would be record or economic bureaus. Likely the library of congress, maybe the federal reserve, department of the treasury, etc.

[Castano]

u.s. dept of commerce? or the national archives might have reports from that era...

the internet has unfortunately steam-rolled all the old records - since stuff is online no one remembers the old systems...and there is almost zero interest in back-filling the non-computer data.

[kmj2587]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.bls.gov

The Bureau of Economic Analysis
http://www.bea.gov

The Federal Reserve Bank
http://www.federalreserve.gov

Also, when you're searching for info, search specifically for the balance of payments sheet, as that will give you the import/export and asset numbers that you might be looking for.

Failing those, PM with more specifics on what you need and I will find it one way or another. I might be able to find it in the archives of the data The Economist keeps track of. I also have a lot of data from the depression and earlier sitting around in a book here somewhere.

[paazin]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.bls.gov

The Bureau of Economic Analysis
http://www.bea.gov

The Federal Reserve Bank
http://www.federalreserve.gov

Also, when you're searching for info, search specifically for the balance of payments sheet, as that will give you the import/export and asset numbers that you might be looking for.

Failing those, PM with more specifics on what you need and I will find it one way or another. I might be able to find it in the archives of the data The Economist keeps track of. I also have a lot of data from the depression and earlier sitting around in a book here somewhere.

kmj to the rescue, yet again

[Rotku]

Thanks a lot!