Possible disruption of FRED data

[rsvp]

Description of specific issue

As of 2018, FRED is making changes to their API which
may alter the URL scheme to retrieve datasets.

This would critically impact the function makeURL()
in module lib/yi_fred.py

• Bug -- NOT yet, old URL still operational

Expected behavior

Data in CSV format gets properly downloaded and processed by fecon235.

Observed behavior

Temporary disruption reported January 2018.

Additional helpful details for bugs

• URL problem is discussed in detail at FRED no longer working pydata/pandas-datareader#435

• Alternative: https://research.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/ but this requires an API key

• Problem started recently, but not in older versions

• Problem happens with all files, not only some files

• Problem can be reliably reproduced

• Problem happens randomly

• fecon235 version: v5.17.0722

[rsvp]

Non-problem resolved in v5.

Note future source code spin-off #9
to https://git.io/fecon236