Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Thanks to William Trent for introducing me to this particular economic indicator:



The indicator is now in negative territory, but just an eyeballing of the entire chart seems to indicate that the indicator has spent more time below zero than above during the time frame being charted. That doesn't seem right, given that the expansion after 1991 didn't end until the dot-com bust, a period of about 10 years. A deeper exploration of the underlying data would seem worthwhile.