Economics and Business

This page:
Economics and Business, generally | Labor | Career | Personal Finance and Investments | Consumer, Shopping

Economics and Business

• Business Navigator (New York Times)
• Business Research Guide (Rutgers University Libraries)
• CEO Express - Directory for the person in the corner office
• Intelligence Index and CI Tools - Directory for competitive intelligence (Fuld and Co.)

• Resources for Economists on the Internet (RFE)
• Scout Report for Business and Economics - No longer updated, but the archives are searchable (Internet Scout Project)
• WebEc: WWW Resources in Economics

Business News:

• Advertising Age (Ad Age)
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek
• Bloomberg News
• Business Insider
• Business Journals - Serving major U.S. cities
• BusinessWire - Press releases, regulatory filings, etc.
• CNN Money
• The Economist - British publication with international interests
• Gallup Organization - Many of its polls have to do with opinion on the state of the economy
• Multinational Monitor
• Quartz
• Special Issues - Special issues of magazines, mostly trade publications (Compiled by Hill Reference Library, a business library in St. Paul, Minn.)
• Special Issues: Gary Price's List of Lists - Tops in many categories, mostly business
• Wall Street Journal - Most content requires a subscription
• Yahoo Finance - Financial news, stock quotes, other tools

Money:

• Money - Past, Present, and Future (Roy Davies)
• Current Value of Old Money

International Trade:

These sites have sections devoted to doing business in specific countries

• Virtual International Business and Economic Sources (VIBES) - Sections for comprehensive (i.e., worldwide), regional, and national sites (U. of North Carolina at Charlotte)
• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
• Doing Business - Comparative data on doing business in different countries (World Bank)
• Economist.com: Topics - Information on many topics. Clicking on a country name gives you current news and economic info
• GlobalEdge - Economic and business information (Michigan State University)
• Global Resource Directory
• Insights by Country
• Index of Economic Freedom - Countries ranked (Heritage Foundation)

U.S. Government:

• BuyUSA.gov (U.S. Commercial Service, Commerce Dept.)
• Export.gov - "Helping U.S. companies export"
• Foreign Agricultural Service - U.S. Dept. of Agriculture information on selling farm products overseas

Trade Statistics:

• Database of International Business Statistics (DIBS) (GlobalEdge)
• International Trade Statistics

Economics Research:

• Social Science Research Network (SSRN) - Preprints in the social sciences, mainly economics and related subjects
• BizSeer.ist - Search engine for academic business literature (formerly SMEAL Search, Penn State)
• RePEc: Research Papers in Economics - A respository for academic research
• IDEAS - "The largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available freely on the Internet"

Economics Data Sources:

See also

• Demographics and Statistics
• BEOnline Statistics (Library of Congress business reference services)
• Business Statistics on the Web (Paula Berinstein)
• Econdata.net - Source for all kinds of data
• International Monterary Fund (IMF) Data and Statistics
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - The major industrialized nations
• OECD Data
• UC Atlas of Global Inequality - Compare countries and specific factors, such as economics, education, and environment (UC Santa Cruz)
• World Bank:
• World Bank Open Data
• World DataBank lets you do analysis and visualization
• World Bank Open Knowledge Repository - Reports and papers

United States:

• Economic and Financial Data for the United States - Links to sources of economic data produced by government agencies (Treasury Dept.)
• Bureau of Economic Analysis:
  • U.S. Economy at a Glance
  • BEArfacts - State, county, and metro area data on personal income and gross domestic product (GDP)
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Economic News Releases
• Economy at a Glance - Data for states and metropolitan areas
• Databases, Tables, and Calculators by Subject - Inflation and prices, employment/unemployment, pay and benefits, spending and time use, productivity, workplace injuries
• Statistics on Pay and Benefits
• Census Bureau:
• Census Bureau Economic Statistics
• Current Population Survey - Labor force statistics (but also families and living arrangements, school enrollment, etc.) (Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Economic Indicators
• Compare 50 - Economic statistics for the 50 states
• Commerce Dept.: Key Economic Indicators
• The Conference Board - Source for data such as leading economic indicators and consumer confidence
• Congressional Budget Office: Economy - Assessments and predictions about the economy, especially with regard to the federal government's budget
• Council of Economic Advisers
• Economic Indicators - Gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, federal finance, and international statistics.
• Economic Report of the President
• Federal Reserve System
• Federal Reserve Board: Statistics and Historical Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:
• Page One Economics - "The back story on front page economics"
• Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
• National Association for Business Economics (NABE) links - Useful directory of sites for a variety of economic data
• National Center for Children in Poverty - Includes data
• State of Working America

Prices, Inflation:

• Consumer Price Index (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Measuring Worth - Measures of worth, such as currency values, purchasing power, inflation rates, stock indexes, GDP, wages, gold prices, interest rates
• U.S. Daily Index: The Billion Prices Index - A project to collect price data and calculate the inflation rate (MIT)

Small Business:

• AllBusiness
• Inc. magazine
• SCORE - Small business advice and mentoring

Government Assistance:

• Small Business Administration
• Business.USA.gov - Assistance for small businesses

Business and Economics Books:

• Recent Business and Economics Books Cataloged at the Library of Congress

Labor

• AFL-CIO
• American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
• Labor Research Portal (Institute of Industrial Relations Library, UC Berkeley)
• WageIndicator - International comparisons of salaries and labor law

Career

• Get That Gig - Includes "day in the life" articles
• Quintessential Careers
• U.S. Civil Service: Classification and Qualifications

Finding a Job:

• America's Job Bank
• CareerBuilder.com
• Craigslist
• Glassdoor - Has reviews of companies
• Indeed - Aggregates listings from other job sites
• LinkedIn - The business social networking site may help you find a job
• Monster.com (Jobs.com is another interface)
• Simply Hired
• USA Jobs - Federal government jobs (U.S. Office of Personnel Management)

Financing Your Creative Project:

• Kickstarter

Personal Finance and Investments

Investing and Personal Finance Advice:

• 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy - Lots of advice, calculators, etc. (American Institute of CPAs)
• Forbes Personal Finance
• Investopedia - News, advice, tutorials, video, dictionary
• Kiplinger Tools - Calculators to help you make financial decisions
• Motley Fool - Investment advice, often contrary to conventional wisdom
• MarketWatch - News and advice
• MSN Money
• Practical Money Skills (Visa)
• Quicken - Includes money management tips as well as the famous financial software
• Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning (U.S. Dept. of Labor)

Check on Finance Pros

• SmartCheck.gov "Free tools to check the background of financial professionals and stay informed on the latest fraud schemes" (Community Futures Trading Commission)

Company Directories and Other Information (for investors):

See also

• Company Directories (for consumers), below
• Annual Reports - Collection of annual reports from over 5,000 companies
• Big Charts - Stock charts
• Daily Stocks - Links to all kinds of stock news
• EDGAR - The database of corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Hoover's Company Profiles - Public and private, U.S. and non-U.S. Some info is free, but you get more with a subscription
• Justquotes is a whole lot more than just quotes
• Open Corporates - "The open database of the corporate world"
• Quicken.com Investments - Stock quotes and other info (formerly Networth)
• Security APL Quote Server - Stock quotes and other market information
• Stockmaster (was: Stock and Mutual Fund Information from MIT)

Corporate Research:

• Corporate Information - Company snapshots, top 100 lists, currency exchange rates, and links for industries and countries; more information on companies is available by subscription (Wright Investors' Service)
• Industry Resarch Desk - Extensive guide to doing research on industries. (Don't let the plain look of the site put you off.)
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) - Many business and economic information systems use these codes.

Socially Responsible Investing:

• Social Funds - Compare mutual funds with socially responsible investing criteria

Brokerage Firms:

• E-Trade
• Charles Schwab

Interest Rates:

• Bankrate.com - Interest on mortgages, credit cards, etc.

Currency Conversion:

Foreign exchange

• FXConverter - Currency conversion (Oanda.com)
• Xe.com: The Universal Currency Converter
• Yahoo Finance Currency Conversion - Includes many unusual currencies

Taxation:

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms and Publications
• State Tax Forms and Filing Options (Federation of Tax Administrators)

Consumer, Shopping

• BEOnline Consumer Information (Library of Congress Business Reference Services)

Shopping Web Directory:

• Shopping Spot

Company Directories (for consumers):

Includes directories of products purchased by businesses, as well as those purchased by consumers

• Get Human - Phone numbers and techniques for getting a human on the phone at major companies
• Co-op America's Green Pages - Socially and environmentally responsible products and services
• Responsible Shopper - Large national companies and brands
• Kompass - Millions of companies and their products
• Manta - "Big finds from small business"
• ThomasNet - Manufactured goods (Thomas Register of Manufacturers and Thomas Regional)

California:

• California Business Search - Corporations, LPs, and LLCs (California Secretary of State)

Product Search Engines and Price Comparisons:

• Become.com
• Bizrate
• Google Shopping - Searches the Web to find the best price on your product (formerly Froogle and Google Product Search)
• mySimon
• PriceGrabber
• Shopping.com

Online Emporia:

Sites that sell all kinds of things.

• Amazon.com
• eBay - Best known as an auction site, but you don't always have to bid in order to purchase items here
• Overstock.com
• Shopzilla
• Yahoo Shopping

Consumer Reviews and Opinions:

• Angie's List - Subscription site for reviews of service businesses
• Better Business Bureau - Check a business' or charity's rating and see if it has any complaints against it
• Consumer Reports - Some content requires a subscription
• ConsumerSearch - Reviews of products from many sources
• Epinions - Users register their opinions about all kinds of goods and services
• Ratings.Net
• Yelp - Users review businesses in major U.S. cities

Consumer Advice:

• Consumer Complaints and Protection - Advice and help from various government agencies [ConsumerAction.gov]
• Consumer Information (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)
• Shopping Online

Product Safety and Recalls:

• Consumer Product Safety Commission - News about products
• Recalls.gov - Find products that have been recalled

Complaints:

• Filing a Consumer Complaint (USA.gov)
• Consumer Complaint Database - For complaints about financial institutions (Consumer Finance Protection Bureau)
• eConsumer.gov - A portal to report complaints about online and related transactions with foreign companies

Automobiles:

• Cars.com - New and used cars, finance, advice
• Edmunds - Prices and reviews
• Kelley Blue Book - Price guide
• NADA Guides - Price guide

Real Estate, Housing:

• Homesales.gov - Single-family homes for sale by the U.S. government
• Realtor.com
• Trulia - Real estate for sale
• Zillow - Get an estimate on the value of a property
• Zip Realty - MLS listings

Other Industries and Products:

• Local U.S. Pharmacies

Classified Ads:

• Craigslist - Advertising and discussion for cities in the U.S. and around the world

Telemarketers:

• National Do Not Call Registry - If you live in the U.S. and don't want telemarketers calling you, sign up here. If they call anyway, file a complaint

Favorite Companies and Products:

See also

• Book Sources - Publishers, bookstores, etc.
• Bookstore Hall of Fame
• Music labels, Blues
• Fun Places to Buy Stuff

I  like these companies and products. Your mileage may vary

• Lands' End - Where I get much of my fabulous wardrobe
• Moleskine - Nice notebooks that make you want to write something important in them.
  • Moleskine hacks and More Moleskine hacks (43 Folders)
• Papyrus - Greeting cards and more
• J. Peterman - I can't help it: I love the stories in the catalog
• Teva - The next best thing to going barefoot