Editorial policy

This page states how material on Macroeconomic Woes is put together, so that any figure on the site can be checked rather than trusted.

Numbers come from a named publisher, with a date

Every figure is traced to the body that publishes it — the EIA, BLS, BEA, Census Bureau, CBO, FDIC, FHFA, CFPB, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Social Security Administration, a named state agency or revenue department, a named index methodology — and is given with the period it refers to. A figure without a period is not a figure; it is a rumour with digits.

Where no published number exists, no number is printed. The mechanism is described instead: which rule produces the amount, who applies it, and which inputs would move it. This is the single rule that most often shortens a page here, and it is not negotiable.

Quotations come from documents

Quoted words come from a published document — a rule, a statement, a methodology note, a report — and the document is named in the same sentence. No material on this site quotes an unnamed expert, an anonymous official or an invented bystander, because such a quotation cannot be checked and carries no information beyond the impression it creates.

Arithmetic is shown, not asserted

Where a page explains how an amount is reached — an escrow deposit, a card interest charge, a break-even month on mortgage points, a demurrage invoice — the inputs are listed and the sum is visible, so a reader can substitute their own inputs and get their own answer. Worked examples use the rule as published; they are not quotes for anyone’s particular case.

Commercial links, stated plainly

Pages inherited from this domain’s earlier commercial layer carry paid links. They predate this portal, they are kept unchanged, and they are not editorial recommendations. No payment buys a mention, a position or a conclusion in material published by the newsroom, and no commercial link is ever inserted into it.

Coverage of gambling is coverage of an industry

Gaming economy exists because the sector publishes unusually detailed statistics and almost nobody explains them: what a handle is and why it is not revenue, who sets a slot machine’s payback and within which published limits, where an earmarked betting tax actually lands, what promotional deductions do to a state’s reported take, and what a helpline’s call volume does and does not measure. These pages give no play advice, no odds, no bonuses and no operator rankings.

Corrections

A figure that cannot be reconciled with its source is a defect, and reports of one are welcome at [email protected]. A correction that changes a number or a date is made on the page itself and the page says what changed.

What is not here

No advertising network, no sponsored articles, no affiliate rankings written by the newsroom, no analytics of ours, no newsletter harvesting, no paywall and no registration. The cookie policy is short because there is almost nothing to describe.