Nobody I can find has asked this yet. So, here goes:
Why weren't the raw data kept up to date as part of the ongoing program? Anyone working with time series data knows you don't just add a new number to the end of a series at the end of the month -- rather, the whole time series gets re-written, transferred from older storage formats to newer ones, re-cataloged if possible and appropriate, etc etc etc. This is PART OF YOUR JOB! How can anyone possibly throw out raw data to save space? What was judged more important?
Here's another extra-credit question: none of the participating governments threw out their data to save space I would venture to guess. Indeed, all have almost certainly recoded all necessary data series in the most up to date machine readable form, so reconstructing the lost data ought to be, if not an easy project, then at least a doable project.
So, let's get cracking!
UPDATE: Finally somebody else is saying something similar! Frankly it's about time! |