DO IT YOURSELF ECONOMIC FORECASTING: The American Mind points to Gene Sperling's recommendations of sources that will give the reader a feel for the wiggles of the business cycle. (Mr Sperling advised President Clinton.) There are a number of useful reports with hyperlinks there, it might be wise to add them to your favorites folder before the article goes to archives somewhere. It is still useful to develop your intuition, as the best published sources are still at best lagging slightly behind what's really happening. You can see a lot just by watching, and the published sources will confirm what you are seeing with some time lag.