American Default Research

Fetch the latest quarterly reading of the American Distress Index (ADI) composite. Returns the composite score (0-100), band (1-5) with its label, the composite's rank in its own published history (rank_in_history.reading: quote this beside the band label), the methodology reading of the inputs, and the five-domain breakdown (Delinquency, Default & Legal, Debt Burden, Labor, Safety Net & Buffer) with domain scores and member component percentiles. Updated quarterly.

Fetch a county's County Distress Index (CDI) scorecard by 5-digit FIPS code. Returns the 0-100 score (the share of the other U.S. counties with a lower composite, rounded down; field composite_score), score label, national + state rank (national_rank_ordinal is filled only for the top and bottom 100, where the site prints it), 5-domain breakdown (Delinquency, Default & Legal, Debt Burden, Labor, Safety Net & Buffer), key findings, and pre-baked APA / MLA / Chicago / news-copy citations. Accepts 4-digit FIPS with implicit leading zero. 3,144 counties available.

Fetch statistically-validated leading/lagging relationships for an indicator. Source: the five-filter leading-indicator scanner (cross-correlation → first-differenced CCF → multi-crisis validation → Granger causality → out-of-sample validation). Returns two lists: `as_leader` (pairs where this indicator precedes its follower) and `as_follower` (pairs where another indicator precedes this one). Only fully-validated pairs are included — partial matches are not surfaced. Most of the 120 indicators return empty lists; only a handful of pairs clear the full gauntlet.

Fetch a compact snapshot of an American Default economic indicator by slug. Returns latest value, unit, frequency, direction, pre-computed aggregates (period averages, extremes, sustained runs), editorial prose (when available), and canonical APA / MLA / Chicago / news-copy citations. Raw historical series is NOT included — use https://americandefault.org/api/indicators/{slug}.json for the full data. Slug examples: 'the-buffer' (personal savings rate), 'mortgage-delinquency-rate', 'initial-unemployment-claims-sa'.

Fetch an explicitly versioned compact indicator snapshot. Returns the latest value and canonical citation plus `trend_suppressed` and `series_breaks` comparison-safety fields. Callers must pass `response_version='v2'`; unsupported versions fail closed. The legacy `get_indicator` tool remains pinned to its original v1 shape.

Search the 120-indicator registry by keyword. Returns ranked matches (up to `limit`, default 10, max 50) with slug, branded name, underlying name, category, and canonical URL. Scoring is substring+prefix over slug, branded_name, name, and category — e.g. query 'savings' returns both The Buffer (personal saving rate) and The Safety Net (emergency savings survey). Use this when you want to discover which slug corresponds to a concept before calling `get_indicator`.