August 2018 Beige Book: Reading Between The Lines – Rate Of Economic Expansion Improved

The consolidated economic report from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts (Beige Book) stated: “economy expanded at a moderate pace“. The previous report stated “10 of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts reporting moderate or modest growth“.

Analyst Opinion of this month’s Beige Book

Seems like the rate of growth was a touch better than the last report as modest growth is weaker than moderate growth in the Fedspeak language. Note the following statement from the Federal Reserve:

This document summarizes comments received from contacts outside the Federal Reserve System and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials.

Please see the end of this post for words the Federal Reserve uses when the economy is entering a recession. The Beige Book completely missed the 2001 recession and was late in seeing the Great Recession.

This report was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York based on information collected on or before August 31, 2018.