Acknowledgments -- Lessons from demography -- Introduction -- "The wonderful, terrible, inscrutable economy" -- Historical change, economic behavior, and demographics -- The demographic portrait -- Generation X and the effects of population change -- What this portrait tells us -- Implications...

Analyzing the performance of the economy in real time is a challenge for those who must forecast macroeconomic variables such as inflation or employment. A key aspect of this challenge is evaluating the incoming flow of information contained in economic announcements. In this article, the...