A macroeconomic dashboard to keep Greece aloft

It is difficult to make progress if you cannot measure it. Some things can't be quantified, such as love, happiness or beauty, but in macroeconomics, measuring things is very important to get an idea of what is going on. Sometimes people have complained to me that macroeconomic policy making is about numbers and not about people - the public does not understand what is being done and why.
This is a problem, because one way to describe macroeconomics is as a large amount of numbers that describe what a large number of people are doing. So, yes, you have to know the numbers, because these are not empty dead spots, but rather live pieces of information. Following time series tells us something about how large numbers of people are changing their collective behavior, and how they react to impulses, shocks and government policies that impact the economy.
The numbers, of course...

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