Housing starts. Unemployment rates. Trade deficits. Now, you can easily track those depressing financial indicators and more while on the go.

Cascade Software Corp. -- a tiny Redmond startup led by former Microsoftie Rammanohar Arumugam -- released a 99 cent application called Economy earlier this month to glowing reviews.

"The raw data in this app is better than listening to talking heads on TV," wrote on user. The app -- which draws on data published by the Federal Reserve -- not only shows what is happening in the economy right now but also compares it to historical data from decades ago.

It then shows that data in relation to Democratic and Republican administrations, as well as recession periods.

When "Economy" was released on July 4, it broke into the top 10 paid news applications in the app store. It now ranks 3rd out of about 1,100 paid apps in that category, though Arumugam declined to disclose the number of downloads to date.

He said he built the application because he is a "news guy" who is interested in software that "may contribute to the civic good."

Cascade Software has experienced some other success with iPhone app development in the civic software category.

Arumugam is also the developer of a 99 cent app called Government Spending, which like the name suggests allows users to research government spending by department (Education, Defense, Energy, etc.) and year.

It also has released the Global Warming Personal Calculator and Election, which was designed for the 2008 presidential election and now shows final election numbers.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow him on Twitter @johnhcook.