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Includes: FAQ and How-To articles (posted to Data Buffet News), related items among the Reference Files. Sections are: Dataset questions, introductions, specific how-to, using forecasts, economic and geographic definitions.

Contents

• Topics by dataset
• Introductory articles and video modules
• Using Data Buffet
• Using Moody's Analytics forecasts
• Economic and geographic definitions

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1. Datasets

• EULA for Statistics Canada CANSIM II
• "Dow Jones & Company" is now "S&P Dow Jones Indices"
• Manifest of active historical releases
• "As Reported" databank

Banking

• When is a small business loan not a loan to a small business?
• Consumer leverage ratio

Home affordability

• Comparison: Moody's Analytics and NAR housing affordability indexes?
• Comparison: Three NAR housing affordability indexes
• Does the Moody's Analytics housing affordability index incorporate the 2008 first-time homebuyer tax credit?

Home mortgage distress

• RealtyTrac - Are condos included?
• RealtyTrac - Are the data a census or sample?
• RealtyTrac - Can monthly foreclosures be frequency-converted?
• What describes: Home mortgage foreclosures
• What describes: Loan modifications
• What kinds of multi-family properties are in the Moody's Delinquency Tracker?
• Why is foreclosure inventory greater than REO foreclosures?

Home mortgages

• HMDA - Defines: Multi-family
• HMDA - Defines: Conforming loan
• HMDA - How does Moody's Analytics estimate HMDA non-conforming loans?
• How to compute: The 12-MAT for ARMs

Credit quality

• How are personal bankruptcies counted?

CreditForecast

• "Month on book" - How to chart
• Blended series - How they're calculated
• How consumers are matched with joint accounts
• Improvements between 2011Q1 and Q2
• Mapping ZIP Code areas to states and MSAs
• Vintage observation reconciliation

Cyclic indicators

• Conference Board, The - Indicator availability
• Probability of recession - Availability
• What describes: Special indexes
• What describes: Cost of living

Recession

• NBER U.S. recession dates from 1957 [Excel]
• NBER: Peak in December 2007
• What describes: Recession years

Demographics

• Is RPOPQ seasonally adjusted?

Employment

• BLS employment now uses NAICS 2012
• BLS labor force stats: Why don't states sum to the nation?
• CES and QCEW differ on "natural resources and mining"
• CES-based employment estimates for New England MSAs
• Defines: County household employment rates within a metro area
• Defines: Labor market area
• Does the BLS CES include military?
• Timing: Why are some state- and metro-level series delayed?
• What describes: Underemployment
• What industry contains Indian Tribal employment?

Special aggregates

• Listing: Moody's Analytics industry service aggregations [Excel]
• Moody's Analytics special aggregates "office-using employment" and "office-using industry"

Financial

• EUR-USD exchange rate 1971-1999

Flow of Funds

• Flow of Funds - Groups of: Financial instruments
• Flow of Funds - Groups of: Sectors
• Flow of Funds - Recurring changes
• Flow of Funds - Where are the footnotes and definitions?

Government

• Compare: Federal fiscal year vs. date conversion

Income

• Comparison: Extended Benefits and Emergency Unemployment Compensation
• Comparison: Household income - YHHAVGA and FYHHAVGQ
• BLS - How to compute: The BLS average weekly wage?

Industry

• BOC M3 - Can factory orders be negative?
• Geo codes for regional ISM, NAPM and PMA surveys
• BOC M3 - Industry shipments vs. new orders

National accounts

• Compare: GDP growth rate

Real estate

• Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) - Availability
• Comparison: BOC new home sales and NAR existing home sales
• What describes: Housing

Definitions

• Are townhouses single- or multi-family?
• BOC - Defines: "Other" housing stock?
• BOC - Defines: Households and occupied housing units
• BOC - Defines: Single-family and multi-family
• How are unoccupied new housing units classified?

Prices

• Which Moody's Analytics estimates of median prices of existing homes omit NAR data?

CSI

• Does this series use FHFA data?
• Is it in real or nominal terms?
• Main FAQ
• Which products contain county-level data?

NAR

• Do NAR prices include distressed sales?

Sales

• Comparison: NAR monthly and quarterly sales
• Do NAR sales include condos and co-ops?

Retail

• Comparison: RTFS, RRTFSQ, and FRTFSQ

Trade

• Comparison: IMF DOT and national trade figures

Forecast

• Global Metro Areas Forecast - Availability
• Global National Forecast - Availability
• Global National Forecast - Regional aggregate geo codes
• Seaborne trade: Do we forecast it?
• Which forecast concepts are available for each country? [Excel]
• Which global metro areas have forecasts? [Excel]

Subnational datasets

Historical

• Australia
• Brazil
• Bulgaria
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Latvia
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Panama
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• U.S. - ZIP code area-level data [Excel]

Estimated

• Australia
• Canada
• Ireland

2. Introduction

• 101: Fundamental terminology
• 102: Dataset ranks in the value-added stack
• 103: Series measurement units
• 104: Geographies
• Using LiveHelp!

Video tours of Data Buffet Blue:

• Module 1 - Getting started
• Module 2 - Data finding methods
• Module 3 - Data retrieval methods (interface, Excel add-in, API)
• Module 4 - Data visualization (chart, map)

Video tours of Data Buffet Red (deprecated):

• Index

White papers

• Global Metropolitan Areas: The Natural Geographical Unit for Regional Economic Analysis (June 2012) [PDF]
• Improving Accuracy of Subnational Forecasting and Analysis Through Historical Data Estimation (April 2012) [PDF]

3. Using Data Buffet

Basics

Identifiers

• How can I use FIPS codes to identify areas?
• International data: Global Concepts, single-country, cross-country
• Mnemonic, concept code and geography code

Metadata and documentation

• Is this series real or nominal?
• Mnemonic 411
• Reference files
• Series measurement units
• What is the release date of a series?

Modules

Basket

• How can I transfer baskets to EViews? [PDF]

File formats

• Schema for XML output
• What does each basket field do?
• What does each basket output format provide? [Excel]

Multiple series

• Geo lists
• Wild cards in baskets

Chart

• Center a chart's date range on the last historical date of a forecast series

Map

• Edit colors
• Zoom and relocate

Power Tools

• Features of v.7

View

• In View Series, forecast periods are red
• Jump from View Series to Mnemonic 411

Analysis

• Be cautious when converting low-frequency data
• Formulas in baskets: Examples, operators, debugging
• How to compute the 12-MAT
• Transformations defined
• Use the CONVERT formula to smooth or extract

Automation

• Can I be notified of updates?
• Retrieve series automatically

Troubleshooting

• Basket error re: whitespace in mnemonic
• Data Buffet error messages
• Data Buffet fixes
• How to resolve concurrency violations?
• Power Tools errors and fixes

Basket

• Default basket settings

Chart

• Default chart settings

Map

• Default map settings
• Retrieve metro areas by state
• Default interface settings

Analysis

• Aggregate series by area
• Dates - after frequency conversion
• Translate currencies
• Apply seasonal adjustment
• Apply inflation adjustment

Automation

• Find and delete forgotten schedules

Basics

• In what order should I look for series?

Basket

• Dates - what they mean

Modules

• Series limits in basket, chart, map
• Re-download an output file
• Series limits in basket, chart, map

4. Using Moody's Analytics Forecasts

• Main FAQ
• How can I recognize a forecast time series?
• How can I recognize a seasonally adjusted forecast?
• What is the "macro" forecast?
• What is the "regional" forecast?
• Where are the forecast methodologies?

Timing

• How promptly are historical actuals incorporated into the forecast series?
• How frequently are forecasts updated?
• What does "quarterly, updated monthly" mean?
• What is the forecast schedule?

Vintages

• Can I obtain a prior vintage?
• What is a forecast vintage?

Scenarios

• U.S. macro forecast: "Current" vs. "baseline"
• What do scenario probabilities mean?
• Where are the scenario assumptions (narratives)?
• Which scenarios are available?

Analysis

• Can I produce an annual forecast?
• Frequency conversion of U.S. components of change

Vs. history

• Do forecasts contain history?
• How can the historical segments diverge across forecast scenarios?
• What's the correct way to compare a forecast and its historical driver?

5. Economic and geographic definitions

• Abbreviations [Excel]
• Comparison: Establishments and firms?
• What are re-exports?
• What is 1993 SNA?
• What is a diffusion index?
• What is SAAR?
• What is the Gini ratio?

Classification

• Comparison: NACE vs. ANZSIC, ISIC, NAICS
• Listing: ANZSIC [Excel]
• Listing: BLS labor force codes [Excel]
• Listing: BLS occupation codes [Excel]
• Listing: ISIC Rev. 3.1 [Excel]
• Listing: JSIC [Excel]
• Listing: NACE Rev. 2 [Excel]
• Listing: NAICS 2007 [Excel]
• Listing: SITC [Excel]

Geo Change

National

• ISO 3166-1 for Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey
• ISO 3166-1 for Montenegro, Serbia
• IUVK is now IUNK

Subnational

• Germany 2011
• ICAN_NF now ICAN_NL
• Italy 2010
• U.S. metro areas 2006-2009

Supranational

• Define: Euro area (changing composition)
• IDXUS now IDVXU
• OECD #33 is Israel
• OECD #34 is Estonia

Geography

• Comparison: BEA and BOC county definitions
• Comparison: BEA and BOC independent city definitions
• Concordance: ZIP Code areas to counties and MSAs [Zipped txt]

Geo levels

• Australia
• Ireland
• Italy

Metro areas

Global

• Australia
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Lithuania
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• Romania
• South Korea
• Spain
• Turkey
• U.K.

U.S.

• Changes to metro area definitions, 2006-2009
• Listing: Contents of metro areas [Excel]

Updates

• Sep 2011 - Initial version
• Oct 2011
• Nov 2011
• Jul 2012
• Nov 2012
• Jun 2017
• 19 Sep 2019 - Video modules for Data Buffet Blue