Real Economy Dashboard

This dashboard tracks the real economy — freight, factory orders, retail spending, jobs, inflation, credit stress, and equity prices — using official data from FRED and market sources.

Use it to see whether activity is accelerating or slowing across financial conditions, business activity, and consumers. Align every chart to the same date or major drawdown window, compare moves against gray recession bands, and mark each indicator Bull, Neutral, or Bear to build your own top-down read.

Example: Select the 2008–2009 drawdown and you’ll see freight, orders, and jobs deteriorating during the crash — the real economy was already weak, and equities fell roughly 57%. In 2022, credit tightened and stocks dropped about 25%, but retail, payrolls, and industrial activity held up far better. The underlying economy stayed resilient, and the market recovered much faster than after the financial crisis.