Glossary section
Cost data & sources
Where the Cost Index gets its numbers — the public agencies behind every reading — and the methods that turn raw wholesale prices into a figure you can defend.
19 definitions.
- BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) — the U.S. price, wage & jobs statistics agency
- USDA Market News — USDA’s public market-price reports
- USDA Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) — mandatory packer price reporting to USDA
- USDA Dairy Product Sales Report (NDPSR) — the weekly U.S. dairy price benchmark
- FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — the public front door to U.S. economic data
- EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) — the U.S. federal energy-statistics agency
- NOAA Fisheries — the U.S. ocean-fisheries & landings agency
- FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) — the U.S. food-safety & labeling regulator
- CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) — the U.S. commodity futures market
- Measured, derived, absent — measured, derived, or honestly absent
- Confidence (level vs trend) — level certainty vs trend certainty
- The shippable bar — publish only when it clears the bar
- Prediction band — a calibrated uncertainty range
- Calibration (track record) — does the confidence earn its name?
- Historical-ratio bridge — a labeled estimate from a stable ratio
- Freshness & series rot — how current the data is
- Pressure overlay (leading indicator) — leading signals of cost pressure
- Revisions & vintage — how published numbers get corrected
- Assessed price (benchmark) — an editor-judged market price