The US government is shutting down EconomicIndicators.gov effective March 1st
Due to "budget constraints". Natch.
The data comes from the Economics and Statistics Administration at the Department of Commerce. It will still be collected, bundled and analysed, just not made available in a trim, compact and readily accessibly web format for anyone who is interested.
It is a nice little web site, the marginal cost of posting the data must be in the tens of thousands of dollars per year...
h/t Calculated Risk
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" ... in the tens of thousands of dollars per year..."
Well, maybe, depending on which contractor does it. You have to remember all the people who grab that charge number because their own charge number has run out of money, and it takes a long time to properly prepare the coffee pot, read the newspaper and check all the favorite blogs in the morning. Someone has to pay for that, too. So yes, it probably does cost in that neighborhood, if not more. But then removing it is consistent with the policies of this administration anyway. You know, keep as much useful information as possible away from the citizens.
It strikes me that that page is nothing but an aggregator and is probably completely automated. Thus the only cost is for bandwidth.
So, what non-federal entity could just copy the page code and continue providing the service?
Well the timing isn't bad, now that Bernanke has admitted we're in a recession. As someone said; "Poor man, he was the last to know."