The date and source behind every figure on this site
A rate, a projection, or a statistic on this site sits next to two things: the date it applies to, and the source that published it. Both appear beside the figure itself, so you can go and look at the original release.
Where the Federal Reserve figures come from
Rates and projections drawn from the Federal Reserve reach this site through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED API. FRED itself is a public database, but the St. Louis Fed's own position on the API is that it neither endorses nor certifies how a third party uses it, and that applies to its use here.
Where the reference rates come from
Where a reference rate published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York appears, the New York Fed's own position is that it does not sanction or endorse any particular republication of its data, and carries no liability for how a site like this one republishes it. That is the New York Fed's statement about its own data.
What the date is for
A rate quoted with no date attached could be from last week or from three years back, and for a mortgage payment or a savings balance those are two different facts. Putting the date next to the figure, and the source next to the date, is what lets you set a number on this site against the same number on the original release and see whether the two still match.
What to check on any figure, chart, or calculator here
A quick way to check whether a page, a chart, or a calculator on this site meets the standard it claims for itself.
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The figure has a date attached
A rate, a projection, or a statistic is only shown alongside the date it applies to.
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The figure names its public source
The source appears by its full name next to the figure, such as the Federal Reserve Board or the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, so it can be looked up directly.
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A chart is drawn from the published figures behind it
The figures a chart is built from are listed underneath it, with their source.
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Nothing typed into a calculator leaves your browser
The numbers you enter are used to run the calculation on the page you are looking at and go nowhere else.
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A calculator's arithmetic is shown
Each input is labelled and each step is visible, so the working can be checked by hand against the answer given.
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A missing or disputed figure is marked as such
Where a number cannot be confirmed against a named source, the page says so.
This is a way of checking any one page, not a guarantee that every page on the site meets every point at every moment.
When a figure is missing, late, or in dispute
When a figure hasn't been published yet
Central banks and statistical agencies work to their own release calendars, and those dates do not always line up with when a reader arrives at a page. Where a figure is due but not yet out, the page says so and names the release it is waiting on.
When a source revises what it published
Statistical agencies sometimes restate a figure after the fact, and a central bank can amend a table between one release and the next. Where that happens, the older figure is not quietly swapped out. The page notes that a revision occurred and points to the later publication, so a reader who saw the first number can see why it changed.
When two public sources give different numbers for the same thing
A rate or a series can appear on more than one central bank or statistical agency page, sometimes drawn from slightly different reporting periods or methods. Where that produces a mismatch, the page names both sources and the dates each figure applies to.
What settles a gap or a disagreement
The published record settles it. Where a figure is missing, out of date, or contested, the fix is the same in every case: find the primary release that speaks to it and read the date on that release. A reader who spots a figure that looks wrong or stale can write to thecentralbanker@contactforsales.com with the page and the figure in question.