Academic Economic Websites

William F. Sharpe's Home Page, at www.wsharpe.com, contains several valuable sections, including the complete text of his online textbook-in-progress, Macro-Investment Analysis. Dr. Sharpe describes this book as follows: "The focus is on techniques of analysis that can lead to sensible top-level (macro-) investment decisions." Browsers of this site will also find a number of important full-text articles, interactive worksheets, material written for his graduate business classes at Stanford, monthly returns of selected indices and mutual funds, MATLAB programs and obligatory biographical material. Overall, Dr. Sharpeês Website is priceless, as it provides insights and commentary on some of the primary building blocks of modern portfolio theory, upon which most of us have built our asset allocation models, straight from the horseês mouth.

Dr. Ed Yardeni's Economic Notebook, at www.yardeni.com (See Figure 4 À Yardeni.jpg), is truly an ambitious undertaking, and is updated on a regular basis. In addition, it features audio and video content, as well as slide shows and polls that make the material more engaging. Dr. Yardeni is Chief Economist and Global Investment Strategist of Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, and is frequently quoted in the media. Although he is not an academic, I list his Website here because of its extensive educational content. Dr. Yardeni is a noted Y2K commentator, but there is also other abundant content here, covering topics such as U.S. Economic Forecast, cybereconomics, foreign indicators, chart rooms, monetary and fiscal policies, Federal Reserve analysis, Baby Boom charts and demographics, stock charts and even movie reviews. Dr. Yardeniês Website takes interesting topics, and presents them in a very entertaining manner.

Figure 4 -- Dr. Ed Yardeni's Economic Notebook

Now, itês just a plain fact that some of us have too much time on our hands. I suppose Iêm glad Iêm not one who falls into this category, but sometimes I wish I had more time to spend, say, on some of the Websites in this article. Those who do have time to spare can go take a look at Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics nobelprizes.com/nobel/economics/economics.html and tell me whatês there.

Organizations

There are times when inquiring investment minds want to know what major players are doing in the worldês markets and economies. The Internet gives us direct access to publications and data from the movers and shakers themselves, such as central banks. You can find the Federal Reserve at www.bog.frb.fed.us (Figure 5 À FED.jpg), which hosts lots of useful information such as background on the Federal Reserve System, minutes of Federal Open Market Committee meetings, domestic and international research, consumer information, reports to Congress, publications and related Web sites.

Figure 5 -- Federal Reserve

The World Economic Forumês excellent Webpage, at www.weforum.org , provides broad coverage of the international economic scene. In particular, visitors will find coverage of economic meetings and summits occurring around the world, community-building facilities, publications, press releases and other information.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development can be located at www.oecd.org ;. This is a comprehensive, well-organized and fascinating Website covering OECD activities, statistical information, news and events, documents and articles. Topics covered include food and agriculture, money laundering, sustainable development, transportation, regulatory reform, technology and industry, energy and environmental issues.

During times like those weêve witnessed over the last 18-24 months, investment professionals may want to get a better sense of international crises and solutions from the International Monetary Fund, at www.imf.org . This site has regular postings that bring viewers up to date on such issues as the status of country dealings, news releases, meetings and more. Similarly, The World Bank, at www.worldbank.org , provides news and event information, as well as extensive data on regions and countries, publications and projects.

And our award for the most fascinating mish-mash of information and community-building is FinanceNet, at www.financenet.gov . "With nearly 20 million .hitsê per year, 85,000 Internet mailing list subscribers and 225 government newsgroups, FinanceNet is likely the largest government administrative "Internetwork" in the world." FinanceNet is an effort apparently begun by Vice-President Al Gore to link finance officials from the public and private sectors so that information sharing and public accountability could be fostered. Itês an international effort, and includes many items of economic interest.

The Internet Economy

Given its reach and potential impact, no source list of economics research would be complete without providing links to at least one Internet economic resource! And wouldnêt you know, thereês already a .zine covering the scene, as it were. The Industry Standard, "The Newsmagazine of the Internet Economy," can be found at www.thestandard.com/ . Subscriptions to the print version are about $50, but thereês a lot of free material on the Website, too, including an Internet Economy Index graph and associated report, published weekly.

The more I explore the economic resources on the Internet, the more excited I get. The material is timely, complete, authoritative and the variety is stunning. Unfortunately, I didnêt have as much time to just browse during the research and writing of this article as I would have liked. Now, what was that statement Peter Lynch made about wasting time?