# Economy ## Tools Economic indicators over time — inflation, unemployment, interest rates and housing from FRED, US federal debt and spending, and daily euro reference exchange rates. Data from FRED, U.S. Treasury and ECB. See [Economy](/docs/data/sources/economy) for coverage, freshness and credits. Your agent reaches these on Vistazo's MCP server, `https://mcp.vistazo.ai/mcp`, through `search_tools` and `call_tool`, as `economy__` — for example `economy__search_series`. | Tool | What it does | | |---|---|---| | [`search_series`](#search_series) | Search economic series | Read-only | | [`series_info`](#series_info) | Economic series details | Read-only | | [`series_observations`](#series_observations) | Economic series observations | Read-only | | [`national_debt`](#national_debt) | National debt | Read-only | | [`spending_and_revenue`](#spending_and_revenue) | Spending and revenue | Read-only | | [`budget_breakdown`](#budget_breakdown) | Federal budget by category | Read-only | | [`interest_rates`](#interest_rates) | Interest rates | Read-only | | [`exchange_rate`](#exchange_rate) | Exchange rate | Read-only | | [`latest_rates`](#latest_rates) | Latest rates | Read-only | | [`currencies`](#currencies) | Currencies | Read-only | ## search_series `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` Find FRED economic series by keyword (e.g. "unemployment rate", "30 year mortgage", "CPI" — the consumer price index). Returns {matches: [...]}, ranked, with id, title, units and frequency. Call this FIRST — every other tool takes an exact series id, and FRED holds ~800,000 of them. Several series share one title and differ only in `frequency` (GS10 is the monthly 10-year yield, DGS10 the daily one) or in seasonal adjustment (CPIAUCSL adjusted, CPIAUCNS not) — match the frequency to the chart's cadence and prefer the adjusted series for trend charts. ## series_info `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` One series' metadata — title, units, frequency, seasonal adjustment, and the span it covers. Use it to label an axis correctly and to check a series is measured the way you assume before charting it. ## series_observations `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` The actual time series for one or more FRED series — one row per date with a column per series, chart-ready as a line. US macro: CPI (the consumer price index, inflation), unemployment, MARKET interest rates and Treasury yields, the yield curve, housing. Monthly series are dated the first of the month. A missing observation comes back as null, not zero, so a chart draws a gap rather than a plunge. Not this tool: the rate the government pays on its own debt is interest_rates, the debt itself is national_debt, and exchange rates are exchange_rate (daily ECB rates). ## national_debt `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` U.S. national debt — total public debt outstanding with the public vs. intragovernmental split ({date, total_debt, public_debt, intragov_debt}, whole USD). Daily by default; interval="monthly" returns one row per month (the last reading of each month, so the current month is a partial row dated its latest reading — end the range at the last month-end to leave it out) for charting beside monthly series. Chart as a trend line, or the split as a stacked area. Defaults to the trailing year. ## spending_and_revenue `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` Monthly federal receipts vs. outlays and the resulting deficit/surplus — one row per month ({date, receipts, outlays, deficit, surplus}, whole USD), dated the last day of the month. Chart receipts + outlays as two lines, or the balance as bars. `deficit` is positive when outlays exceeded receipts; `surplus` is its negation. Defaults to the trailing ~2 years. ## budget_breakdown `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` Where federal money comes from and where it goes, by category, for a U.S. FISCAL year (October–September, named for the year it ends: FY2025 = Oct 2024–Sep 2025), from the Monthly Treasury Statement. `breakdown`: "receipts_by_source" (individual income taxes, corporation income taxes, social insurance and retirement, excise, customs, estate and gift, miscellaneous), "outlays_by_function" (national defense, health, Medicare, income security, Social Security, net interest, …) or "outlays_by_agency" (each department's net outlays). Omit `fiscal_year` for the latest COMPLETE fiscal year — "the latest fiscal year" is one call; pass the current one for year-to-date through the latest published month (`complete` and `through` say which). `interval` "fiscal_year_to_date" (default) returns one row per category with the year-to-date total; "monthly" returns each month's own amount. Rows {fiscal_year, period (YYYY-MM), record_date (the LAST day of that month), category, parent, is_total, fytd, amount} in whole USD, net of refunds and offsetting receipts, so a few outlay lines are negative. Rows with parent null and is_total false sum to the is_total row; a row with a parent is a sub-line of that category — leave it out of a pie or a sum. Data from FY2015. Not this tool: monthly receipts/outlays/deficit totals are spending_and_revenue; calendar-year national-accounts views (BEA, on FRED) are search_series; market yields are series_observations. ## interest_rates `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` Monthly average interest rates the U.S. PAYS on its outstanding debt, by security type — the fiscal cost of the debt, not a market yield (for Treasury yields use series_observations with DGS10 / GS10). One row per month, dated the last day of the month, with a percent column per selected security (Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, …). Chart as multi-series lines. Security names must match exactly; a name that matches nothing comes back in `unmatched` beside the names Treasury does publish. Defaults to Bills/Notes/Bonds over the trailing ~3 years. ## exchange_rate `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` Daily currency exchange-rate time series over a date range — one row per day with a numeric column per target currency, ready to chart as multi-series lines. European Central Bank reference rates (per working day, back to 1999). Rates are quoted per 1 unit of `base`: for "EUR to USD" (dollars per euro, ~1.1) pass base "EUR", symbols ["USD"] — base "USD", symbols ["EUR"] is the reciprocal (~0.9). One base per call, so two pairs quoted against USD are two calls, or one call with base "USD" inverted in the transform — each call names its column by the symbol (`USD` both times), so rename by base before joining them. Defaults: base USD, a basket of majors, the trailing year. Weekends/holidays are omitted. ## latest_rates `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` The most recent exchange rates for a base currency against many currencies — one row per currency ({currency, rate}), good for a bar chart or snapshot table. Quoted per 1 unit of `base`: for "EUR to USD" pass base "EUR", symbols ["USD"]. Default base USD. ## currencies `Read-only` · `Reaches outside Vistazo` List the supported currencies as {currencies: [{code, name}]} — the 30+ ECB reference currencies. Use to validate a code or populate a currency picker.