beige book

The economic recovery is likely to be rocky, according to the latest Beige Book region-by-region report from the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Tell us something we don't know. OK, the report suggests we are not headed for another recession. However, thanks to a stagnant housing market, high unemployment, gun-shy businesses and a skittish stock market, the recovery is having trouble gaining speed. The report also confirms that the homebuyer tax credit this spring created a bump in home sales that has not fully sustained itself.

Our wimpy recovery continues to get stronger, little by little, month by month. The latest good-ish news comes from the Beige Book, the latest economic report out from the Federal Reserve.

"Overall economic activity increased somewhat since the last report," it said.

It's the "somewhat" that gets you. I personally would have preferred "robustly," or "boldly," but I guess we'll have to take what we can get....

The economy is strengthening in most parts of the U.S. -- but the recovery isn't translating into new jobs, according to the Beige Book report released today by the Federal Reserve.

That doesn't bode well for the housing market, since long term unemployment is one of the top reasons homeowners are still losing their homes to foreclosure, and foreclosure is still the biggest threat on the horizon for the housing recovery, according to many experts.

But the report showed strengthening demand in the residential real estate market -- at least for low-priced homes.

The latest Beige Book report from the Federal Reserve exactly describes the weak, jobless recovery economists warned us about.

The name of the twice-a-quarter report perfectly reflects its current contents. Beige: a bland color, a little darker than vanilla ice cream. Unlike red, which says "stop," or green, which says "go," beige says "go slow."

"While economic activity remains at a low level, conditions have improved modestly," reads the the new year's first Beige Book report, released on January 13. The report skips much of the statistics found in other Fed reports, instead serving up anecdotal evidence from the 12 Fed districts. More than other reports, it tends capture the mood of the economy.

No news is good news, as a delicate recovery spreads through our struggling economy. With that in mind, we have some excellent news from the latest "Beige Book" survey from the Federal Reserve Bank.

No shockers, thank God. If you have a home on the market, there's little to scare potential purchasers that they don't already know. If you're looking to buy, there's nothing good enough to make the Fed raise interest rates when its policy-setting committee meets Dec. 15-16.

Instead, the economy "improved modestly" in late October and November.