I find that economics is a profession that often goes out of its way to make you feel stupid for not understanding something.

So I wanted to write this thank you thread for the heroes @stlouisfed.

1/

I started my first job as a research assistant in September 2008, the most tumultuous month of the financial crisis.

(The month has its own wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_financial_crisis_in_September_2008)

And I had absolutely no idea what was happening.
1/

I was 23 and the economy was in free fall and I was days into working.

In trying to find out what was going on, I stumbled on to the newsletter from the St. Louis Fed, which had an accessible explanation of what subprime lending was and how it affected the financial system.
2/

This newsletter (best of my knowledge) became Page One Economics. The idea is that these short essays explain the front page economic news. Here's the one I read:
https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2007/09/01/subprime-mortgage-lending

3/

I have followed this publication ever since and it's fair to say that it's given me a well rounded education in economics that I didn't get in a classroom.

For example, here's a piece from 2008 on what a flu pandemic would do to the economy.
https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2008/02/01/the-economic-impact-of-an-influenza-pandemic-on-the-united-states
4/

All the way through today, when they explain the lump of labor fallacy.

Why don't immigrants or automation cost jobs? The labor market is not a zero sum gain.

https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2020/11/02/examining-the-lump-of-labor-fallacy-using-a-simple-economic-model

5/

And this is to say nothing of the beauty and wonder that is FRED.

Thanks for explaining things, and making me better!

/n