Since launching EconLens, one pattern has surprised me: the questions people ask are far more specific than I expected.
It is rarely “what is inflation.” It is more like “how does US core PCE compare to Euro Area core HICP when you strip out energy and food, and what does the divergence imply for the rate differential.”
That is exactly the kind of question where live data matters. Training data from 2024 will happily hallucinate outdated numbers, and a few basis points can completely change the conclusion.
EconLens pulls both metrics live from FRED and the ECB, aligns the definitions as tightly as possible, and calculates the spread on the spot. Then it layers on historical parallel searches so you can see when a similar divergence last happened and how central banks reacted.
The takeaways for me:
- Users are hungry for granular, comparative questions, not just explanations.
- Live data and precise definitions matter more as questions get more targeted.
- Good tools should encourage better questions instead of dumbing them down.
If you have a specific macro question you have been sitting on, this is the kind of thing EconLens was built to answer. econlens.app — 5 free analyses per day.