Writing · topic · 63 articles

Finance and markets

Banks, securities, funds, and the financial regulators from the SEC and FDIC to the CFTC, plus their enforcement records.

• The Custody Chain: Fifteen Million Genomes, One Bankruptcy Court

  2026-07-18

  In 2023, recycled passwords opened roughly 14,000 accounts at 23andMe and, through its relative-matching features, the profiles of millions. Within two years the genetic database had been fined on two continents and sold through a Chapter 11 auction for $305 million, under a court-appointed Consumer Privacy Ombudsman, over the objection of more than thirty states. The full custody chain — breach, penalty, bankruptcy, sale, and the 12-state statute wave that is its legacy — from the public record, via the new Genetic Privacy Ledger.

  Cybersecurity and privacy · Finance and markets · Transparency and open data

• FDIC Bank Failure Data: Every US Bank That Has Failed Since 1934

  2026-07-09

  The FDIC publishes a complete failure list covering 4,000+ bank closures since 1934 — S&L crisis wave, the 2008–2012 GFC wave with 500+ failures, and the 2023 SVB/Signature/First Republic episode. Here is the dataset schema, how to use call report data and the Texas Ratio to identify at-risk institutions, and how financial journalists access FDIC BankFind.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• When a Breach Happens: How One Cyber Incident Surfaces Across Federal Disclosure Regimes

  2026-06-23

  There is no single US cyber-breach registry. One incident can surface in three unconnected federal places — CISA’s KEV catalog (the exploited vulnerability), an SEC 8-K Item 1.05 filing (the material event), and the HHS OCR breach portal (health data) — each with a different trigger, threshold, and clock. A guide to joining them by victim organization and date.

  Cybersecurity and privacy · Finance and markets · Transparency and open data · Engineering and infrastructure

• The Corporate Securities Lifecycle: One Company Across EDGAR on a Single Key

  2026-06-21

  Most federal data syntheses fail at the join — there is no shared key, so the analyst is left fuzzy-matching names. The SEC ecosystem is the rare exception: EDGAR’s Central Index Key uniquely identifies every filer, so the company registry, the 8-K material-event filings, the 13F holdings that name the company, its Form D private placements, and its litigation and administrative enforcement all link without ambiguity. This guide assembles all six SEC datasets into one CIK-keyed corporate profile that follows a company across its entire public life.

  Finance and markets · Engineering and infrastructure

• The Anatomy of a Bank Failure: Reading the Federal Data Before a Bank Goes Under

  2026-06-21

  A bank rarely fails without warning — its slide shows up in the quarterly call reports quarters before regulators close it. This is a guide to reconstructing the whole arc from federal data, joining the FDIC institution registry, the call-report financials, the enforcement orders, and the failed-bank record on one clean key: the FDIC certificate number.

  Finance and markets · Federal data · Engineering and infrastructure

• SEC Comment Letters: The Federal Record of How Disclosure Is Actually Enforced

  2026-06-21

  When the SEC’s staff reviews a public company’s filings and has questions, it sends a comment letter — and EDGAR publishes both the staff’s questions and the company’s replies. This is the candid, lagged record of how disclosure standards get enforced in the space between formal enforcement actions: which accounting topics draw scrutiny, which companies got pushed, and how filings changed in response.

  Finance and markets · Transparency and open data · Federal data

• SEC Administrative Proceedings: The Federal Record of the SEC’s In-House Enforcement

  2026-06-21

  The SEC brings a large share of its enforcement in its own forum — before an administrative law judge or the Commission itself — rather than in federal court. This deep-dive covers the ~18,400 administrative proceedings in our table: the registrant bars, accountant suspensions, registration revocations, and orders instituting proceedings, the forum-choice questions that Lucia and Jarkesy reshaped, and how the record joins to EDGAR and the compliance-screening lists.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Litigation Releases: The Federal Record of Securities Cases Filed in Court

  2026-06-21

  When the SEC sues in federal district court—for accounting fraud, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, market manipulation, or FCPA bribery—it issues a Litigation Release that summarizes the complaint and tracks the case to judgment. This guide walks the ~11,800-release record: the civil-court versus administrative-forum split, what Jarkesy changed, the join by defendant to EDGAR and the enforcement screening lists, and a Python workflow that tallies releases by year and searches them by name.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• NCUA Enforcement: The Federal Record of Actions Against Credit Unions

  2026-06-21

  When a credit union or its officials break the law or run the institution into the ground, the NCUA acts — cease-and-desist orders, civil money penalties, prohibitions, conservatorships, and liquidations. This guide reads ~1,400 of those enforcement actions as the credit-union piece that completes the four-regulator picture of every federally insured depository in the country.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Form D: The Federal Record of Private Securities Offerings

  2026-06-21

  When a startup raises a seed round, a hedge fund launches, or a sponsor syndicates an apartment building, it almost never registers with the SEC — it files a Form D instead. That brief notice is one of the only public windows into the private markets that now raise more capital than public offerings, and this guide reads it column by column.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• Federal Reserve Enforcement: The Federal Record of Actions Against Bank Holding Companies

  2026-06-21

  The Federal Reserve supervises bank holding companies, state member banks, and the US operations of foreign banks — and when they break the law or run themselves unsafely, it acts. This guide walks the ~1,500-action public enforcement record: the cease-and-desist orders, written agreements, civil money penalties, and removal-and-prohibition orders, the holding-company vantage that distinguishes the Fed from the OCC and FDIC, and how the three banking regulators’ records join into a single map of US bank supervision.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• CFTC Enforcement: The Federal Record of Derivatives and Crypto Market Actions

  2026-06-21

  The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement brings the civil actions that police the US derivatives markets — fraud, manipulation, spoofing, and, increasingly, digital-asset cases. This guide walks the ~4,400-record enforcement file: the Commodity Exchange Act frame, administrative orders versus federal-court complaints, the spoofing and benchmark-manipulation eras, the crypto-as-commodity fight with the SEC, and a Python workflow that scrapes the public cftc.gov pages to tally actions by year and violation and rank respondents by monetary relief.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• OCC Enforcement: The Federal Record of Actions Against National Banks

  2026-06-21

  When a national bank breaks the law or runs an unsafe operation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency answers with a cease-and-desist order, a consent order, or a civil money penalty — and publishes it. This is a deep dive into the OCC enforcement record: roughly 4,900 actions against national banks, federal savings associations, and the bankers behind them, the BSA/AML and mortgage-servicing and sales-practices failures that drive them, and how the dataset joins the FDIC and Federal Reserve records into one map of US bank supervision.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• PBGC Trusteed Pensions: The Federal Record of Every Dead Corporate Pension

  2026-06-21

  When a company with a traditional pension goes bankrupt and its plan is underfunded, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation steps in as trustee and pays the retirees — and records the dead plan in a federal registry. This guide covers the ~5,170 trusteed plans, the ERISA insurance frame, the single- and multiemployer programs, the benefit guarantee cap, the steel-airlines-auto collapse the data documents, the Form 5500 join, and a worked Python walkthrough.

  Labor and workplace · Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC 8-K Filings: The Federal Record of Every Material Corporate Event

  2026-06-21

  Form 8-K is the SEC’s current report — the event-driven filing a public company must submit within four business days of a major development. This guide covers the item-code taxonomy, the four-business-day clock, the 2023 cyber-incident rule, how the corpus joins to the EDGAR registry by CIK, a worked submissions-API walkthrough, and the caveats of tagged-event data.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Financial Statement Facts: The Structured XBRL Behind Every 10-K and 10-Q

  2026-06-21

  Every number in a public company’s 10-K and 10-Q is filed not just as formatted text but as a structured, machine-readable XBRL fact — revenue, net income, total assets — tagged to a US-GAAP concept and keyed to the filer’s CIK and period. This guide covers the 2009 mandate that created a decade of comparable structured fundamentals, the anatomy of a financial fact, the company-facts API, and the caveats of company-chosen tags and restatements.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• FINRA BrokerCheck Firms: The Federal-Adjacent Registry of Every US Broker-Dealer

  2026-06-21

  FINRA’s BrokerCheck publishes the registration, status, and disciplinary history of every US broker-dealer firm — roughly 13,300 firm records keyed by CRD number, the screening source behind every “is this brokerage legit?” question. A field-level guide to CRD identifiers, the SEC-FINRA self-regulatory structure, disclosure events, registration scope, and the broker-misconduct research built on this record.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• FDIC Enforcement Actions: The Federal Record of Orders Against Banks and Bankers

  2026-06-21

  The FDIC publishes every formal enforcement order it issues against state-chartered banks and the bankers who run them — roughly 10,900 cease-and-desist orders, civil money penalties, and prohibition orders that bar individuals from the industry for life. A field-level guide to the action types, the institution-affiliated-party concept, BSA/AML and safety-and-soundness causes, the join to the institutions directory, and a Python walkthrough of the public orders system.

  Finance and markets · Sanctions and illicit finance · Federal data

• FDIC Call Reports: The Federal Database Behind Every US Bank’s Quarterly Financials

  2026-06-21

  Every federally insured US bank files a Consolidated Report of Condition and Income every quarter — the Call Report — and the FDIC publishes the result as a system of record so granular that the deposit run and unrealized securities losses that felled Silicon Valley Bank were legible in it months ahead. A guide to ~1.67 million bank-quarter rows: the Call Report’s statutory frame, the FFIEC forms, regulatory capital and asset-quality ratios, CAMELS, the 2023 failures, and a worked BankFind Suite API walkthrough.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• FDIC Institutions: The Federal Registry of Every US Bank, Active and Historical

  2026-06-21

  The FDIC’s BankFind Suite is the canonical registry of every FDIC-insured institution, active and historical — roughly 27,800 banks and thrifts, each pinned to a permanent certificate number that ties together its call-report financials, its failure record, and its enforcement history. A field-level guide to the CERT key, charter classes, the active/inactive lifecycle, and the no-key BankFind API.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC 13F Institutional Holdings: The Federal Database Behind What the Big Money Owns

  2026-06-21

  Every quarter the SEC requires large institutional investment managers to disclose their long positions in exchange-listed securities, producing the federal database that powers all whale-watching — what Berkshire, Bridgewater, and the big hedge funds bought and sold. This guide covers Section 13(f), the XML information table, the 45-day lag and confidential-treatment carve-outs, the CUSIP and CIK join keys, and a Python walkthrough that pulls a manager’s latest 13F-HR from EDGAR and ranks its top holdings.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• HMDA Mortgage Lender Filings: The Federal Record of Who Reports Under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

  2026-06-21

  The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act forces thousands of lenders to report every mortgage application and loan — but first someone has to record who filed. The FFIEC filer panel is that registry: roughly 34,700 filer-year records (2018–2023) keyed by Legal Entity Identifier, the index to the most important fair-lending dataset in the country.

  Finance and markets · Economy and demographics · Federal data

• SBA PPP Loans: The Federal Database Behind 11.8 Million Pandemic Paycheck Protection Loans

  2026-06-21

  When COVID-19 closed the economy in March 2020, Congress answered with the largest small-business lending program in American history — and the SBA published it loan by loan. The result is a roughly 11.8 million-record database of forgivable paycheck-protection loans: every borrower, lender, NAICS code, amount, and forgiveness status, and the fraud that rode in alongside the relief.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• The $800 billion bailout: using SBA PPP data to trace who got pandemic relief

  2026-06-08

  After a FOIA fight, the SBA released PPP loan data covering 11.8 million loans and $793 billion in forgiven funds. Here is what the public data contains, the fraud patterns it revealed, and how to cross-reference it with SAM.gov debarments, IRS nonprofit data, and the DOJ prosecution record.

  Federal data · Finance and markets · Consumer protection · Transparency and open data

• The mortgage map: using HMDA loan-level data to find lending disparities

  2026-06-05

  The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires 7,000+ lenders to report every mortgage application — approvals, denials, withdrawn, race, income, loan amount, census tract. Here is how to use the CFPB bulk download to find redlining, reverse redlining, and lender-level denial rate disparities.

  Federal data · Economy and demographics · Finance and markets

• SEC Form 13F: The Institutional Holdings Disclosure Behind Every Hedge Fund Tracker

  2026-06-03

  Section 13(f) requires institutional investment managers with >$100M in 13(f) securities to file quarterly holdings disclosures with the SEC — ~5,000 filers, 45-day lag, long-equity-only view. Here is the full holdings table schema (CUSIP, VALUE, SH/PRN, PUT/CALL, INVESTMENT DISCRETION, VOTING AUTHORITY), what 13F covers and critically excludes (no short positions, no bonds, no foreign-listed shares), major filers (Berkshire, BlackRock, Renaissance), confidential treatment requests, the 45-day stale-data limitation and clone strategy research, academic use (Griffin/Xu 2009, Brunnermeier/Nagel 2004, Edmans 2009), comparison to 13D/13G/Form 4, and a Python EDGAR bulk index parser to track position changes for any manager by CIK.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• CFTC Commitments of Traders: The Federal Database Behind Futures Market Positioning

  2026-06-01

  The Commitments of Traders report is the CFTC weekly X-ray of who holds the open positions in US futures markets — roughly 98,000 market-week rows splitting open interest in crude oil, gold, corn, Treasuries, the E-mini S&P 500, and dozens of other contracts among commercial hedgers, swap dealers, managed-money funds, and small speculators.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Form 144: The Federal Database Behind Insider Sales of Restricted and Control Stock

  2026-06-01

  Form 144 is the notice an insider files before selling — the public statement of intent a corporate affiliate must put on record with the SEC before disposing of restricted or control securities under Rule 144. Where Form 4 records the trade that already happened, Form 144 announces the one about to, across 1,681 machine-readable notices since mandatory EDGAR e-filing began in 2022.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC EDGAR Company Registry: The Federal Index That Resolves Every Public Company

  2026-06-01

  Every SEC dataset identifies the company it concerns by a single number, the Central Index Key. The EDGAR company registry is the master index that turns that number into an entity — 28,392 companies, each carrying CIK, name, ticker, industry code, state of incorporation, exchange, former names, and active status, the lookup that makes the entire SEC corpus joinable.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC N-PORT Mutual Fund Holdings: The Federal Database Behind Every Fund Portfolio Position

  2026-06-01

  Form N-PORT is the monthly portfolio report every registered mutual fund and ETF files with the SEC — a position-by-position X-ray of what each fund owns, with 354,405 holding rows carrying security identifiers, market value, percent of net assets, asset category, country, and the fair-value hierarchy level that flags illiquid Level 3 positions.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Schedule 13D Filings: The Federal Database Behind Activist Investor Stakes

  2026-06-01

  Schedule 13D is the federal filing an investor must submit on crossing 5 percent beneficial ownership of a US public company with intent to influence it — the document that turns a quiet stake into a public campaign, capturing the activist toeholds, proxy fights, and breakup demands of Icahn, Elliott, Pershing Square, and Starboard in near real time.

  Finance and markets · Transparency and open data · Federal data

• One in four audits flagged: indexing PCAOB deficiency data across the Big 4

  2026-05-29

  PCAOB inspection reports contain structured deficiency data for every registered audit firm. In 2023, 26% of Big 4 audits reviewed had Part I.A deficiencies — meaning auditors signed off without sufficient evidence. Here is what the data covers and how to use it.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• CFPB Consumer Complaint Database: The Federal Record Behind 3 Million Financial Product Complaints

  2026-05-25

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint database contains every consumer complaint submitted to the CFPB since 2012 — 3 million+ complaints about mortgages, credit cards, student loans, debt collection, and credit reporting — with the company response, resolution outcome, and optional consumer narrative, making it the most comprehensive federal record of retail financial product failures.

  Finance and markets · Consumer protection · Federal data

• SEC Form 4 Insider Trading: The Federal Database Behind Corporate Insider Stock Transactions

  2026-05-25

  SEC Form 4 filings are the mandatory disclosure every corporate officer, director, and large shareholder must submit within two business days of any transaction in company stock — creating a real-time public record of insider buying and selling at every US public company, covering 4 million+ filings in the EDGAR database.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• OFAC Civil Penalties: The Federal Database Behind Sanctions Violations and Treasury Enforcement

  2026-05-25

  The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control publishes every civil penalty settlement for sanctions violations — the banks, corporations, and individuals who conducted transactions with sanctioned countries or entities — with penalties ranging from thousands to over $1 billion, creating the most comprehensive public record of US sanctions enforcement.

  Sanctions and illicit finance · Finance and markets · Federal data

• SBA Loan Programs: The Federal Database Behind $50 Billion in Annual Small Business Financing

  2026-05-24

  The Small Business Administration 7(a) and 504 loan guarantee programs back over $50 billion in small business financing per year — every loan disclosed in a public dataset covering borrower name, location, loan amount, lender, industry, and jobs supported, making SBA the most transparent source of small business capital data in the United States.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• CFTC Enforcement Actions: The Federal Database Behind Commodity Market Fraud Penalties

  2026-05-24

  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement database covers every civil action for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act — manipulation, fraud, spoofing, wash trading, and crypto asset fraud — with penalties totaling billions annually.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• Treasury Daily Treasury Statement: The Federal Database Behind the US Government's Daily Cash Position

  2026-05-24

  The Daily Treasury Statement reports the federal government's cash position every business day — receipts, outlays, and the operating cash balance — and is the most granular real-time fiscal data available from the US government.

  Finance and markets · Government operations · Federal data

• CFPB Consumer Complaint Database: The Federal Record of 7 Million Financial Complaints

  2026-05-24

  CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (March 2012): 7M+ complaints since 2011. Products: credit reporting ~60%, debt collection ~10%, credit card ~8%, mortgage ~7%. Equifax/Experian/TransUnion receive 50%+ of all complaints. Fields: complaint_id, date_received, product/sub_product/issue, consumer_complaint_narrative (~20% with text, PII-scrubbed), company_response (monetary/non-monetary/explanation relief), timely (Y/N), consumer_disputed (Y/N), state, zip (3-digit partial). COVID: mortgage forbearance surge. Biden loan forgiveness 2022-2024: 2-3x student loan complaints. Navient $1.85B 2022. Wells Fargo $3.7B 2022 (largest-ever CFPB). API: api.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints/search (no key, max 10k/query). Bulk download ~1.5GB+. Python mortgage complaint analysis by company and response type.

  Finance and markets · Consumer protection · Federal data

• PCAOB Auditor Inspections: The Federal Database Behind Public Company Audit Oversight and Accounting Firm Deficiencies

  2026-05-24

  PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) was created by Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 after Enron/WorldCom/Arthur Andersen scandals; ~1,700 registered audit firms globally; annual inspections for firms auditing >100 SEC-registered issuers, triennial for ≤100. Two-part inspection report: Part I (public deficiencies — insufficient audit evidence, ICFR failures, revenue recognition) immediately; Part II (quality control criticisms) public after 12 months. Big Four 2022 deficiency rates: 31-44% of inspected engagements. HFCAA: Chinese audit firms required to allow PCAOB inspection; August 2022 agreement enabled first-ever inspection of KPMG Huazhen and PwC Zhong Tian. Enforcement: Section 105, $15M/$750k monetary penalties; KPMG 2019 $50M fine for stealing inspection plans. Critical Audit Matters (CAMs) required since 2019. All inspection reports at pcaobus.org/inspections. Here is inspection methodology, deficiency trends by audit area, HFCAA China access resolution, enforcement actions, CAM disclosure, and a Python deficiency rate trend analysis.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• FDIC Institution Database: The Federal Profile of Every FDIC-Insured Bank and Thrift

  2026-05-24

  FDIC BankFind Suite at banks.data.fdic.gov provides institution profiles for all ~4,600 active FDIC-insured banks and thrifts plus 10,000+ historical institutions back to 1934. Charter types: N = national bank (OCC-chartered), SM = state member bank (Federal Reserve), NM = state nonmember bank (FDIC-supervised), SA = state savings association (OCC), SB = state savings bank (FDIC). Dual banking system: institutions choose state or federal charter creating regulatory competition. Banking consolidation: 14,000+ FDIC-insured institutions in 1984 to ~4,600 today -- 67% reduction driven by S&L crisis failures, interstate banking deregulation (Riegle-Neal 1994), Gramm-Leach-Bliley 1999, post-GFC 2008-2012 failures, and ongoing M&A. Summary of Deposits: annual branch-level deposit data enabling banking desert analysis (census tracts with no bank or credit union within 10 miles). CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) exam ratings published: Outstanding, Satisfactory, Needs to Improve, Substantial Noncompliance. BankFind API: /api/institutions endpoint with CERT (unique 5-digit certificate number), ACTIVE, ASSET (thousands), CLASSP, STALP, ESTYMD, SPECGRP, HCTMULT fields; no API key required. Here is charter type mechanics, dual banking regulatory competition, consolidation drivers, CRA compliance, banking desert geography, and a Python active institution analysis by state and asset tier.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC Form D: The Private Placement Database Behind $2 Trillion in Annual Exempt Offerings

  2026-05-24

  SEC Form D is filed within 15 days of first sale in a Reg D exempt offering. Rule 506(b): unlimited amount, no general solicitation, up to 35 non-accredited investors (~90% of filings). Rule 506(c): unlimited, general solicitation permitted (JOBS Act 2012), accredited investors only. Rule 506 offerings raised ~$2.5T in 2022. Fields: entity name, exemption type, offering amount, investor count, investment fund type (VC/PE/hedge/real estate), industry group. EDGAR full-text search at efts.sec.gov. Historical back to 2009. Reg CF ($5M crowdfunding), Reg A+ ($75M mini-IPO). Here is all Reg D exemptions, JOBS Act impact, dark money limitations, and a Python VC state/sector analysis.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• Treasury Daily Treasury Statement: The Federal Cash Flow Data Published Every Business Day

  2026-05-24

  The DTS is published each federal business day at 4 PM ET by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, reporting the prior day's cash receipts, outlays, and borrowing. Tables cover TGA balance at Federal Reserve Banks, public debt outstanding, deposits and withdrawals by source category, operating cash balances, and federal agency deposits. The fiscal year deficit is the running sum of daily net outflows. Here is DTS Table I-VII structure, TGA balance mechanics, debt ceiling X-date tracking, Fiscal Data API access, and a Python script to chart daily outflows by category.

  Finance and markets · Government operations · Federal data

• Federal Reserve H.15: The Selected Interest Rates Release Behind Treasury Yields, Fed Funds, and Every Rate Benchmark

  2026-05-24

  The Federal Reserve H.15 release publishes daily interest rate data for the federal funds effective rate, Treasury constant maturities (1-month through 30-year), prime rate, discount rate, and SOFR since the LIBOR transition. The 2-10 yield curve inverted to -108 bps in 2023, the deepest inversion since 1981. Here is CMT construction methodology, EFFR vs. SOFR vs. LIBOR mechanics, FRED series IDs (DFF, DGS10, SOFR), real rate calculation via TIPS breakevens, and a Python FRED API dual-chart of the yield curve spread with recession shading.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Survey: The Quarterly Credit Conditions Data the Fed Uses to Track Lending Tightening

  2026-05-24

  The SLOOS surveys ~80 large US banks and 24 foreign branches quarterly on changes in lending standards and loan demand. The net percentage (tightening minus easing) is the key signal: it hit +80% for C&I loans in Q4 2008 and +68% in Q2 2020. Net tightening above +50% has historically predicted recession within 4 quarters. FRED series DRTSCILM (large/medium C&I) and DRTSCIS (small firms) extend back to 1990 and are freely accessible via the FRED API.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• Federal Reserve Z.1 Financial Accounts: The Flow of Funds Behind US Household Wealth and Sectoral Balances

  2026-05-24

  The Federal Reserve Z.1 (formerly Flow of Funds) publishes quarterly financial assets and liabilities for all US economic sectors. Here is the household net worth data ($156T 2021 peak, ~$8T 2022 decline from rate hikes), the Distributional Financial Accounts showing top 1% hold ~31% of wealth vs. bottom 50% at ~3%, the two-sided sectoral balance accounting identity, corporate leverage, Table B.101 residential real estate at market value ($25T to $43T 2019–2024), the $26T+ Treasury liability position, Rest of World holdings, FRED mnemonic guide, and a Python FRED API script pulling household net worth with CPI deflation and NBER recession shading.

  Finance and markets · Economy and demographics · Federal data

• USDA NASS Crop Surveys: The Federal Agricultural Data Behind Every Corn, Soybean, and Wheat Market

  2026-05-24

  The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service conducts 400+ surveys annually, reaching 3 million respondents to produce the authoritative federal record of US crop production, livestock inventories, commodity prices, and agricultural prices since 1867. Here is the Crop Production report, WASDE supply-demand balance sheets, the QuickStats API (eight parameters, 50,000 record limit), weekly Crop Progress with Good/Excellent condition ratings, the five major crops (corn 35% of cropland, soybeans competing with Brazil, winter/spring wheat, cotton, rice), the 2012 drought sending corn to $8.49/bushel and soybeans above $17, Cattle on Feed, Hogs and Pigs quarterly, Prices Received/Paid, and a Python QuickStats API script to plot state-level corn yield per acre for the top 5 producing states over 20 years.

  Food and agriculture · Finance and markets · Federal data

• SEC EDGAR XBRL: The Machine-Readable Financial Statement Database Behind Every Public Company

  2026-05-24

  The SEC has required XBRL-tagged financial statements from all public companies since 2009–2011, creating a machine-readable database of ~7,000 active filers. Here is the US-GAAP taxonomy (17,000+ concepts, us-gaap/dei/srt namespaces), the three EDGAR APIs (Company Facts for all filings, Company Concept for a single metric over time, Frames for cross-sectional data across all companies in one period), data quality pitfalls (30% custom extension elements, taxonomy changes after ASC 606, fiscal year misalignment), the Beneish M-score fraud detection application, and a Python script using the SEC EDGAR API to extract Apple's revenue and net income history from 10-K filings.

  Finance and markets · Federal data

• SBA 7(a) and 504 Loan Data: The Federal Small Business Lending Database Behind $40 Billion in Annual Guarantees

  2026-05-24

  The SBA publishes loan-level data for all approved 7(a) and 504 loans — the two flagship small business lending programs covering $30–40B/year in 7(a) guarantees and $8–10B/year in 504 fixed-asset financing. Here is the 7(a) guarantee structure (85% on loans ≤$150K, 75% above, up to $5M), the 504 three-party 50/40/10 split, the loan-level public dataset fields (NAICS, lender, status, charge-off amount, ownership flags), lender concentration (Live Oak Bank, OIG 2014 high-risk lender report), industry default rates, SBIC venture financing, equity and access analysis by minority/women/veteran-owned status, and a Python Socrata API sector default rate analysis.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• FDIC Call Report Data: The Quarterly Financial Filing Behind Every US Bank's Balance Sheet

  2026-05-24

  Every FDIC-insured institution files quarterly Call Reports (FFIEC 031/041/051) — the primary supervisory dataset covering ~4,700 banks with balance sheet, income, asset quality, capital adequacy, and liquidity detail. Here is the RC schedule structure (HTM vs. AFS securities, loan categories, deposit types), Schedule RI income statement, Schedule RC-N nonperforming loans and charge-offs, Schedule RC-R capital ratios and PCA thresholds, the SVB warning signs visible in 2022 Call Report data (HTM unrealized losses, concentrated uninsured deposits), the Texas Ratio methodology, FDIC BankFind Suite API, and a Python community-bank screening script.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• Treasury TIC: The Federal Dataset Behind Foreign Ownership of US Securities

  2026-05-24

  The Treasury International Capital system tracks foreign purchases and sales of US securities — the primary federal source on who holds US Treasuries and how capital flows across borders. Here is the four main TIC reports (monthly major holders, TIC-S/TIC-B flow surveys, SHCA annual position survey, SHLA mirror), the top foreign holders (Japan $1.1T, China $800B peak, UK $700B, Belgium/Euroclear anomaly), the custodian country problem, China's “financial nuclear option” analysis, sudden stop risk, 2008 flight-to-safety dynamics, and a Python script to download the monthly major foreign holders Excel.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• HMDA: The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Dataset Behind Every Redlining Investigation

  2026-05-24

  The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires most mortgage lenders to publicly disclose every application, origination, and denial — with loan amount, property location, applicant race/ethnicity, income, pricing, DTI, LTV, and AUS results. Here is the full post-2018 field schema, how CFPB and DOJ use denial-rate mapping to build redlining cases (Trustmark, Cadence, City National), the denial reason codes, HMDA Platform API, CRA examination connections, and a Python disparity-ratio analysis by county.

  Federal data · Finance and markets · Economy and demographics

• Federal Reserve H.8: The Weekly Snapshot of Every US Commercial Bank's Balance Sheet

  2026-05-24

  The Federal Reserve publishes the H.8 every Friday — a weekly aggregate balance sheet for all US commercial banks covering $23T+ in assets: C&I loans, real estate loans, securities (HTM vs. AFS), reserve balances, and deposit flows. Here is the large vs. small bank breakdown, how the SVB collapse showed as a $98B single-week deposit outflow, H.8 vs. Call Report distinctions, FRED series IDs, and a Python snippet tracking credit cycle signals.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• CFTC Commitments of Traders: The Weekly Federal Report Behind Futures Market Positioning

  2026-05-24

  The CFTC publishes weekly open interest broken down by trader category — Commercial hedgers, Managed Money (hedge funds), and Swap Dealers — for every regulated futures market since 1986. Here is the four COT report formats, how net non-commercial positioning signals crowded trades, the disaggregated vs. legacy format distinction, all covered markets, and how to build a 52-week COT z-score.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• SEC EDGAR XBRL Financials: Machine-Readable Fundamentals for Every Public Company

  2026-05-24

  Since 2009, every public company files XBRL-tagged financial statements with the SEC — extractable through the EDGAR Company Facts API, the Frames endpoint for cross-sectional screening, and bulk quarterly FSN downloads. Here is the US-GAAP taxonomy structure, the three data quality pitfalls (extension elements, restated periods, unit inconsistencies), rate limits, and how to build a revenue growth screener.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• PCAOB: The Federal Audit Watchdog Created After Enron and the KPMG Inspection-Data Scandal

  2026-05-24

  The PCAOB registers, inspects, and disciplines auditors of public companies — publishing inspection reports on every registered firm's deficiency rate. Here is the Big Four inspection pattern, the KPMG $50M scandal for receiving stolen inspection lists, the HFCAA Chinese auditor crisis and 2022 CSRC breakthrough, and how researchers use deficiency rates as an auditor quality proxy.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• NCUA Credit Union Data: The 5300 Call Report and Enforcement Database for 4,700 Federally Insured Credit Unions

  2026-05-24

  The NCUA publishes quarterly 5300 Call Report data for every federally insured credit union — assets, shares, loans, delinquency, net worth ratios — plus a public enforcement action database covering Consent Orders through Conservatorships. Here is the data structure, the net worth PCA thresholds, the 2009 corporate credit union crisis ($28.5B bailout), and how to download and screen the quarterly data.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• CFPB Enforcement Actions: The Public Record of $20 Billion in Consumer Finance Penalties

  2026-05-24

  The CFPB has brought 200+ enforcement actions since 2011 — covering UDAAP violations, redlining, student loan servicer abuses, and predatory auto lending — with $20B+ in consumer relief and penalties. Here is the enforcement action taxonomy, the UDAAP abusiveness standard, the Wells Fargo $3.7B action, how enforcement trends shift across administrations, and how to scrape and analyze the enforcement database.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• OCC Bank Enforcement Actions: Reading the Federal Regulator’s Public Disciplinary Record

  2026-05-24

  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency publishes every formal enforcement action against national banks and federal thrifts — from Commitment Letters through Formal Agreements, Consent Orders, and Cease-and-Desist Orders. Here is the enforcement action taxonomy, the BSA/AML enforcement pattern, the Wells Fargo consent order cascade, and how to scrape and analyze the OCC enforcement database.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• SEC Enforcement Actions: The Public Record of Every Securities Law Violation

  2026-05-24

  The SEC publishes Administrative Proceedings, Litigation Releases, and final orders covering 700-800 enforcement actions per year — with $4-5B in annual disgorgement and penalties. Here is the enforcement record structure, the whistleblower program mechanics, how to scrape and parse the enforcement databases, and how to track administration-level enforcement priority shifts.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• SEC Form 8-K: The Real-Time Disclosure Feed for Every Material Corporate Event

  2026-05-24

  Public companies must file Form 8-K within 4 business days of any material event — covering 33 item types from earnings releases and executive departures to bankruptcy filings and the new 2023 cybersecurity incident disclosure requirement. Here is the item taxonomy, how to filter EDGAR for specific event types, and how Item 4.02 non-reliance filings signal fraud.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• FINRA BrokerCheck: The Public Database of Every Registered Broker and Investment Adviser

  2026-05-24

  FINRA BrokerCheck publishes registration history, licenses, employment records, and disclosure events (customer complaints, regulatory actions, criminal disclosures, bankruptcies) for every registered broker and firm. Here is the data structure, the recidivist broker problem, how to access the BrokerCheck API, and how attorneys use it to vet advisers.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

• SEC Form 4: The Insider Trading Disclosure Behind Every Officer and Director Stock Transaction

  2026-05-24

  Section 16(a) requires officers, directors, and 10%+ shareholders to file Form 4 within 2 business days of any stock transaction — creating a near-real-time public record on EDGAR since 2004. Here is the full transaction code taxonomy (code P open-market purchases as the only discretionary signal), the 10b5-1 plan gaming problem and the 2022 SEC amendments, cluster-buying methodology, academic evidence on 6%+ abnormal returns, and a Python screen for officer open-market purchases.

  Federal data · Finance and markets

All topics: the writing index.