During recent years there has been an
increased interest in economic developments
on the part of the public, particularly
during the 1953-54 and 1957-58
recessions. This interest has further stimulated
the collection and dissemination
of an already imposing array of current
economic statistics. A major factor impeding
the organization, analysis, and interpretation
of these great quantities of
data has been the high cost of the required
calculations. Electronic computers,
however, opened up the possibility
of making such calculations quickly and
cheaply. An electronic computer method
of analyzing business fluctuations prepared
at the United States Bureau of the
Census in 1954 served to demonstrate the
potentialities of computer analysis of
economic data. After improvement and
extension, this method is now in widespread
use in the analysis of economic
time series. These series measure, usually
at monthly intervals, such things as the
production of steel, the number of unemployed,
the average price of wheat,
stock prices, and the liabilities of business
concerns that have failed. Altogether
more than 5000 economic time
series have been analyzed by the Bureau
of the Census for U.S. Government agencies,
foreign governments, universities,and private research organization. Many business business concerns are also using this method to analyze their own performances.