Stop the presses. The beige book is out

“The Beige Book is produced by the Federal Reserve eight times a year, and is an anecdotal assessment of how the economy is doing in each of the Fed’s districts.  We are in the Richmond district, along with a bunch of other southern and border states.

“The Beige Book is kind of what it would be like if you were with a bunch of Fed officials at a bar after work, and they were talking about what they’d heard from around the country:  I talked to a car dealer in Kansas City, and he said business was picking up.  This guy who runs a small real estate business in Atlanta says he’s had an uptick in showings.  This guy who operates a rug factory in Alabama says orders are down.

“It’s about as close to a real-time look at the economy as you can get, and it’s better, in my view, than a lot of economic statistics that are often a little old and not always reliable.  Although you’ll get an argument on that.”

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