BetterEcon Icon BetterEcon iOS 17+
HOME SCREEN WIDGETS • SWIFTUI & SWIFT CHARTS

Put the economic signal on your Home Screen.

BetterEcon makes your saved FRED® series glanceable: choose a precise value or a dark-mode, autoscaled sparkline—without opening the app.

Explore Widgets Widget Setup
Pick any saved series
Value or sparkline view
Dark navy by default
BETTER US ECON
Your economy
Live API
30-YEAR FIXED MORTGAGE Weekly
6.76%
+0.05% vs prior wk
FEDFUNDS
3.63%
Target Rate
DGS10
4.95%
10Y Treasury
UNRATE
4.10%
Unemployment
CPIAUCSL
334.13
Consumer Price
A Better Home Screen

Economic signals, without opening an app.

Pin the data you follow, choose the presentation, and keep the latest cached reading in view.

BETTERECON
UNRATE
4.1%

Unemployment Rate

Latest observation Value
BETTERECON
DGS10

10-Year Treasury Rate

4.24%
Last 30 observations Sparkline
Configurable by design

One widget, your series, your view.

Every BetterEcon widget is configured from the Home Screen editor. Select from the economic series in your Saved list, then choose the clearest way to read it.

  • Choose the series. Pin unemployment, inflation, yields, GDP, or any other saved FRED® series.
  • Choose the view. Show the latest reading alone, or a compact trend chart alongside it.
  • See meaningful movement. Sparklines use the most recent period that fits the widget and an autoscaled range with visual headroom.
  • Stay in the app’s palette. Widgets use the calm dark-navy BetterEcon surface—not a bright system color.
How to add and configure a widget
Capabilities

Engineered for Macro Accuracy

A high-resolution mobile workstation crafted specifically for economists, analysts, and traders.

Configurable Home Widgets

Choose any saved series for your Home Screen, then switch between an at-a-glance latest value and a locally cached, autoscaled sparkline.

Zero-Knowledge BYOK

Your FRED® API key is saved exclusively in the iOS Secure Keychain (kSecClassGenericPassword). Requests travel directly to St. Louis Fed servers with no intermediary logging.

Raw Unsmoothed Fidelity

Charts default to authentic, unadulterated linear observations with fine stroke weighting. Switch on running-window moving averages anytime with the built-in smooth toggle.

Interactive Scrubber HUD

Touch and drag anywhere across the chart to inspect precise historical values, dates, and period-over-period deltas with continuous haptic feedback.

Landscape Pro Trading Desk

Rotate your iPhone or iPad horizontally for an edge-to-edge trading desk perspective, replacing vertical scroll with a full-bleed interactive canvas and pro toolbar.

Tabular View & Summary Stats

Instantly switch between Chart and Table views. Search observations by date or value, sort chronologically, view High/Low/Avg summaries, and copy TSV data.

Retina PNG & Clipboard Export

Export publication-ready dark mode chart cards at 3x retina resolution with source attribution, or copy directly to your clipboard in a single tap.

Visual Walkthrough

Authentic Native Interface

Real screen captures on iPhone and iPad featuring Swift Charts, live inspection HUDs, and keychain configuration.

Overview Dashboard Screenshot

Overview & Key Macro Benchmarks

Real-time market signals highlighting the 30-Year Fixed Mortgage spotlight card, week-over-week deltas, and user-customizable watchlists with instant status indicators.

Swift Charts Detail Screenshot

High-Fidelity Swift Charts & Scrubber

Interactive touch-and-drag scrubber HUD, NBER official recession shading bands, 1Y–Max timeframe presets, smooth/raw observation toggling, and 1-tap retina image exports.

Explore Series Search Screenshot

Comprehensive Series Search

Instant symbol and keyword querying across hundreds of thousands of Federal Reserve series, from CPI inflation and Fed Funds to GDP and Treasury yields.

Keychain BYOK Settings Screenshot

Zero-Knowledge Keychain BYOK

iOS Keychain storage for your personal FRED® API key. Includes live connection testing and immediate fallback to preview mode.

iPad Pro Landscape Workstation Screenshot

Landscape Pro Trading Desk

Optimized widescreen perspective taking full advantage of iPad and iPhone horizontal orientations for high-density multi-decade economic cycle analysis.

Documentation

User Guide & Setup

Everything you need to run, configure, and operate Better US Econ Data.

1

Installation & Local Build

Better US Econ Data (BetterEcon) is built for iOS 17.0+ using pure Swift, SwiftUI, and Swift Charts. You can build it directly with Xcode or regenerate the project file using XcodeGen:

git clone https://github.com/sgoley/BetterEcon.git cd BetterEcon xcodegen generate --spec project.yml open BetterEcon.xcodeproj

Select the BetterEcon scheme, pick any iOS 17+ Simulator (e.g. iPhone 16 Pro), and press Cmd + R to run.

2

Getting a Free FRED® API Key

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides free, permanent API keys to developers, analysts, and students. A key is not required to explore preview data, but unlocks live queries across 800,000+ time series:

Development Convenience: Auto-Seeding

During local development, you can place your key in a gitignored .env file (FRED_API_KEY=your_key) or an Xcode scheme environment variable. The app will automatically seed Keychain on first launch!

3

In-App Key Configuration & Live Verification

Better US Econ Data features a dedicated Settings screen accessible from the Settings tab or by tapping the Live API / Preview pill on the Overview dashboard.

  • Masked Key Input: Paste your 32-character key from the clipboard or toggle visibility.
  • Test Connection Button: Performs a live ping against FRED observations before saving, verifying your key is active.
  • Save Key: Safely writes to the iOS Secure Keychain and refreshes your watchlist with live observations.
  • Remove Key: Seamlessly return to offline preview mode at any time.
In-App Settings Screen Preview
4

Add a Configurable Home Screen Widget

Widgets are available after you have saved and loaded at least one series in BetterEcon. The app writes the latest cached observations to its private shared storage so WidgetKit can display them locally.

  • Long-press an empty area of the iPhone or iPad Home Screen, then tap Edit and Add Widget.
  • Search for BetterEcon, select a small, medium, or large widget, and tap Add Widget.
  • Long-press the new widget, choose Edit Widget, then select the saved economic series to display.
  • Set Display to Value for the latest observation alone, or Sparkline for the value and its recent trend.

Why the chart does not look flat

The sparkline automatically uses the most recent 12, 30, or 60 observations depending on widget size. Its vertical range is calculated from the visible data and padded for headroom, so smaller changes remain legible without exaggerating noise.

5

Navigating Charts, Recessions & Zoom

Every series detail screen is equipped with professional inspection controls:

  • Interactive Scrubber: Drag horizontally across any chart to inspect exact readings and period deltas in the floating HUD.
  • NBER Recessions: Toggle gray recession bands spanning 1973 through the 2020 COVID-19 shock.
  • Range Selectors: Switch between 1Y, 5Y, 10Y, and Max time horizons.
  • Step Zoom (+ / -): Dynamically pinch or tap zoom buttons to focus on specific economic cycles.
Chart Inspection Preview
6

Landscape Trading Desk & Exports

Turn your device sideways for an edge-to-edge landscape workstation. Tap the Share button to export 3x retina PNG images with source attribution, or use the Table mode to copy raw TSV numbers directly into Excel or Numbers.

Landscape Trading Desk Preview
Privacy & Trust

Zero-Knowledge Architecture

How Better US Econ Data guarantees absolute privacy and direct-to-FRED security.

Hardware-Backed On-Device Storage

When you save your FRED® API key in Better US Econ Data, it is stored using Apple's iOS Keychain with kSecClassGenericPassword and kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlock accessibility.

Direct-to-Fed Network Communication

There are no proxy servers, no intermediate relay nodes, and no analytics collection. All HTTPS requests originate on your device and terminate directly at https://api.stlouisfed.org over encrypted TLS. Neither the developer nor any third party can inspect your search queries or watchlist series.

Apple Privacy Manifest Compliance

The repository bundles an official Apple Privacy Manifest (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy) adhering strictly to App Store requirements:

  • Tracking: false (No tracking domains)
  • Data Collected: None
  • Accessed APIs: NSPrivacyAccessedAPICategoryUserDefaults declared with reason CA92.1 solely for local display preferences and saved watchlist series IDs.
Compliance

Disclosures & Attribution

Official trademark notices and Federal Reserve API terms of use.

FRED® Trademark Notice

FRED® is a registered trademark of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This application uses the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED® API but is not endorsed, certified, or sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis or the Federal Reserve System.

Data Sources & Accuracy Disclaimer

Economic time series displayed in Better US Econ Data are compiled and published by original statistical agencies (including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Freddie Mac, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) and distributed via FRED®. Data is provided "as is" for informational and educational research purposes without warranty of any kind.

Non-Investment Advice

Better US Econ Data is an economic data viewer and visualization utility. Content provided within the app or documentation does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. No observation or chart is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, commodity, or financial instrument.

App Store Verification

Privacy Policy

Official privacy policy for Better US Econ Data (BetterEcon) App Store submission.

Effective Date: September 13, 2026

Better US Econ Data ("BetterEcon") is designed with a privacy-first, zero-knowledge architecture. We believe your economic research and indicator monitoring are strictly your own business.

1. Information Collection and Telemetry

  • No Account Required: You do not need to create an account, log in, or provide personal information to use the application.
  • Zero Tracking or Analytics: The app contains no third-party tracking libraries, advertising SDKs, crash-reporting telemetry, or device fingerprinting.
  • No Intermediary Server: The app does not operate a backend server. Network requests travel directly from your device to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

2. API Key Management

Your 32-character FRED® API key is saved exclusively in your device's iOS Secure Keychain. It is never logged or transmitted to any third-party server, and only sent directly to api.stlouisfed.org over TLS to authorize data requests. You can remove your key at any time.

3. Local Storage

Saved watchlist series IDs and view configurations are stored locally on your device using standard iOS UserDefaults. The latest cached widget observations are stored only in BetterEcon’s private App Group container so WidgetKit can render your selected Home Screen series. This data never leaves your device.

4. Third-Party Privacy Practices

When live data fetching is active, the app communicates with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED® API. Their data practices are governed by the St. Louis Fed Privacy Policy.

5. Contact & Support

If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy or need support, please submit an issue on the GitHub repository.

Open Source

MIT License

Better US Econ Data is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.

Copyright (c) 2026 Scott Goley


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:


The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.