This repo contains code for downloading and parsing data from the FRED API. API documentation is here. Using the API requires a key, which you can request here. As of now, there are two main files in this repo: fred_api.R contains functions for working with the FRED API. recession_shading.R contains a function for adding recession shading to plots (useful beyond the FRED API). I hope to add code for working with GeoFRED, and improved functionality for ALFRED in the future.