The Federal Reserve [board] bases its data on data from the Reserve Banks (think Federal Reserve of New York)- which are private and get data from banks chartered in the region (so the New York Fed is partially owned by JP Morgan). Requiring the Federal Reserve [board] to release underlying data could get sticky and be a legal minefield.

You can access the Reserve's information online as part of the Federal Reserve System's Open Government webpage implementing the Open Government Directive from 2009: https://www.federalreserve.gov/open/open.htm

Despite all that, the Federal Reserve is not a government institution, so such legislation would be similar to singling out your business to post all information in machine readable format online.

Is it? My understanding is that although the board is appointed by the President and Congress, once appointed they don't answer to the government, so their data isn't really "government data".

But I'll be the first to admit I know very little about how the Federal Reserve works.

The federal reserve is a curious semi-company-agency with apppontment by president and Congress, but profits going to shareholders (large banks).

Or course, some of the most important economic data sets won't be shared.

It's almost like they want to cover up the systemic disempowerment of the American electorate.