How the decline of economic data could end up with a lot of unemployed Americans

Carl Godfrey for BI

One of the most underrated revolutions of the past 50 years is the explosion of easily accessible data. Whether it's detailed breakdowns of the characteristics of every neighborhood in the US, improved weather forecasting models that give us extra days to prepare for hurricanes, or personalized genomic analyses that can give us early warnings about disease, there has never been more information more readily available than in the last few decades.

For businesses and consumers alike...