I don't know anybody who gets as excited as I do because of data.

That might be because it's unusual. Or it might just be that I don't get out often enough — but, somehow, I don't think that's it.

Under normal circumstances, I get to be excited twice a year: when the firm size class numbers are released in March and then again in June, when the nonemployer numbers are released.

(The nonemployer numbers used to be released in August but that got moved up. This is not something about which I am inclined to complain.)

Last week might have been described as euphoric for me, because both the firm size class numbers for 2007 and the nonemployer numbers for 2008 were released. When does that ever happen?

And it is usually around this time that at least one person wonders what the big deal is. After all, they're just numbers, right?