The United States Government Manual is the "official government handbook," providing information about all of the different agencies and organizations of the federal government. Information from the USGM about some of the major federal organizations relevant to business is presented below.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: The CFPB regulates the offering and provision of consumer financial products and services under Federal consumer financial laws. It gives consumers the information they need to understand the terms of their agreements with financial companies. It also makes regulations and guidance as clear and streamlined as possible so providers of consumer financial products and services can understand and follow the rules without assistance.
Consumer Product Safety Commission: To protect the public from risk of injury, the CPSC requires manufacturers to report defects in products presenting substantial hazards; conducts outreach programs for consumers, industry, and local governments; collects information on consumer product-related injuries and maintains the National Injury Information Clearinghouse; conducts research on consumer product hazards; and encourages and assists in the development of voluntary standards affecting the safety of consumer products. When appropriate, the CPSC requires manufacturers to correct hazards associated with specific consumer products already in circulation, establishes mandatory consumer product standards, and bans hazardous products.
Department of Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture develops agricultural markets, fights hunger and malnutrition, conserves natural resources, and ensures food quality standards.
Department of Commerce: The Department of Commerce promotes the Nation's domestic and international trade, economic growth, and technological advancement by fostering free enterprise worldwide, supporting fair trade, compiling social and economic statistics, protecting Earth's physical resources, granting patents and registering trademarks, and assisting small and minority-owned businesses.
Department of Housing and Urban Development: HUD administers various programs to facilitate its six core functions: insuring mortgages for single-family and multifamily dwellings and extending loans for home improvement and for the purchasing of mobile homes; channeling funds from investors to the mortgage industry through the Government National Mortgage Association–Ginnie Mae; making direct loans for construction or rehabilitation of housing projects that benefit the elderly and handicapped; providing Federal housing subsidies for low- and moderate-income families; giving community development grants to States and communities; and promoting and enforcing fair housing and equal housing opportunity.
Department of Labor: The Department of Labor promotes the welfare of job seekers, wage earners, and retirees by improving working conditions, advancing opportunities for profitable employment, protecting retirement and health care benefits, matching workers to employers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in economic indicators on a national scale.
Department of the Treasury: The Department of the Treasury enforces financial laws, manufactures coins and currency, and recommends economic, fiscal, and tax policies.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: The FDIC preserves and promotes public confidence in U.S. financial institutions by insuring bank and thrift deposits, examining State-chartered banks, and liquidating assets of failed institutions.
Federal Reserve System: In addition to implementing monetary policy, the FRS supervises and regulates banks, transfers funds, handles Government deposits and debt issues, and acts as lender of last resort.
Federal Trade Commission: The FTC protects consumers and promotes competition in broad sectors of the economy. It safeguards and strengthens free and open markets and helps consumers make informed choices. The FTC carries out its mission by using a variety of tools: consumer and business education, law enforcement, research, rulemaking, and studies of marketplace trends and legal developments.
National Credit Union Administration: The NCUA regulates and insures all Federal credit unions and insures State-chartered credit unions that apply and qualify for share insurance.
National Labor Relations Board: The NLRB remedies unfair labor practices and safeguards employees' rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. It is authorized to designate appropriate units for collective bargaining and to conduct secret ballot elections to determine whether employees desire representation by a labor organization.
Securities and Exchange Commission: The SEC protects investors, facilitates capital formation, and maintains efficient, fair, and orderly securities markets.
Small Business Administration: The SBA aids, assists, and counsels entrepreneurs and protects their business interests; preserves free and competitive enterprise; and maintains and strengthens the overall economy.
Trade and Development Agency: The USTDA is a foreign assistance agency that delivers its program commitments through overseas grants and contracts with U.S. firms. The Agency helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority development projects in emerging economies.
Private Company – A private company is one that is owned by an individual, family, or group of partners. The amount of information that private companies must report is limited, and much of that is confidential. Thus, it is often difficult to find much information on a private company. The best hope of locating information on a private company is through searching trade and popular magazines, major newspapers, and the company's Web site, and by contacting the company directly.
Public Company – A public company is a company that issues securities or shares of stock for the public. Those who purchase these securities or shares become investors in and owners of the company. This process is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and public companies must file numerous financial and other reports with the SEC. Because these reports are public information, much data and information can be found when researching public companies. For more information, visit the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov/index.htm.
Subsidiary – A company that is owned in whole or in part by another (parent) company. When researching a subsidiary, it is often advantageous to also research the owning company or the parent company. Sometimes the only information available for a subsidiary is that which is found within the parent company's annual report, press releases, and other parent company reports.
This content courtesy of RUSA/BRASS: BRASS Selected Core Resources - COMPANY AND INDUSTRY RESEARCH
NAICS Code - The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) uses six-digit codes to identify an industry. The NAICS system is gradually replacing the SIC system. Many resources use these codes to identify a company’s activities, index companies by activity, and to define industry data and information. For more information on the history and structure of the NAICS, as well as to search for codes, visit the NAICS Association web site at http://www.naics.com/info.htm.
SIC Code - Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes are four-digit codes used to identify an industry. Many resources use these codes to identify a company’s activities, index companies by activity, and to define industry data and information. For information on the history of the SIC codes and information about its replacement, the NAICS, visit the NAICS Association web site at http://www.naics.com/info.htm. An excellent web site for a list of SIC codes and to search for a code is the OSHA site from the U.S. Department of Labor at http://www.osha.gov/cgi-bin/sic/sicser5.
This basic statistical resource compiles population data and other vital statistics from national statistical authorities. This information is presented as a full international data yearbook in PDF format along with tables and notes on an annual basis. Some information is also accessible as datasets.
Eurostat is the agency within the European Union that provides statistical information for the continent of Europe.
Global economic data, statistics, and country information.
Data covering more than 200 countries and country groupings. Topics include: balance of payments, interest rates, national accounts, prices, production, trade, and population.
Retrieve datapoints, compare countries, create profiles, use forms to generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics on 305 countries..
Reports, data, and publications pertaining to the economic, environmental, social and other conditions in hundreds of countries.
Penn World Tables are the definitive source for real national accounts data. The national accounts for each country, initially in their own currencies, are adjusted using detailed price data to obtain real national accounts in a common currency (U.S. dollars) across countries. These data are invaluable for making comparisons of Gross Domestic Product across countries, and for all manner of research on development and growth.
This database provides detailed information about international trade.
A wide range of national and international data. Most of the time series cover long periods, with some dating back to 1948, for almost all economies of the world.
Portal to publicly-accessible data from the United Nations and IGO and NGO partners.
UN demographic data in yearbook format.
Build tables, graphs and maps. Contains latest available data and indicators, for education, literacy, science, technology and innovation, as well as culture. Also contains updated country and regional profiles, global rankings and other interactive tools.
Social indicators covering population, health, housing, education, and work in over 200 nations.
WITS software provides access to international merchandise trade, tariff and non-tariff measures (NTM) data. Browse the Country profile section to obtain countries exports, imports and tariff statistics along with relevant development data.
Formerly Doing Business series. The World Bank Group's new approach to assessing the business and investment climate in economies worldwide.
View, analyze, and download time series data for countries and country groups. Indicators include social, economic, financial, educational, and environmental topics.
The World Development Indicators is a compilation of relevant, high-quality, and internationally comparable statistics about global development and the fight against poverty. The database contains 1,400 time series indicators for 217 economies and more than 40 country groups, with data for many indicators going back more than 50 years.
Description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries.
Provides essential political, economic and commercial information on over 130 countries worldwide. Identifies changes in business risk and provides detailed analysis of a country's prospects in the short to medium term.
Directory of international import export trade leads, events, and links to 8,000 international trade (export import) related Websites.
Statistical data for 202 countries around the world, including history, economy and political conditions. globalEDGE provides tools and resources to efficiently research nearly any international business question you may have.
From the U.S. State Department. Basic background information of U.S. relations with most foreign nations.
This database provides detailed information about international trade.
Open access repository for research outputs and knowledge products, including reports and papers on economic conditions in numerous countries.
Covers daily life of cultural groups in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, including history, politics, customs, religion, education, human rights issues, and more