Quote from day7793:
For days I have been hitting home a simple thesis: recession is not here, we are not in recession. But the naysayers, pessimists, dimwits, bears and whole assortment of nitpicks came out swinging axes at me.
Well today we received Fed's official word known as BEIGE BOOK report during market hours and according to INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY at
www.investors.com here is the truth:
"BY SCOTT STODDARD
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 1/16/2008
The economy expanded at a slower pace in the final weeks of 2007, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday, but continued growth was enough to ease fears of a recession.
Now start reputing these facts..
The Beige Book is garbage.
Pulling this snippet from Herb Greenberg's blog,
Beating up on the Beige Book
âThe Beige Book doesnât have the greatest track record for predicting recessions, or even noticing ones that have already begun. On March 7, 2001, the same month the recession began, the Beige Book reported that seven of the 12 banks reported âgrowth,â while only one bank reported ânoticeably slower economic activity.â
He added this, from a March 1999 paper by the Minneapolis Fed:
While the gathering of regional information for the Beige Book provides value to the FOMC as a reflection of the economy, the national summary based on the compilation of regional reports does not improve upon private sector forecasts. Consequentlyâbecause the Beige Book does not improve upon private sector forecasts, and because the FOMC looks at an array of forecasts and national indicators, and Board staff generates its own forecastsâthe Beige Book is not a good indicator of the future course of monetary policy.
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Here's the indicators the National Bureau of Economic Research uses to declare recessions (from Kudlow's blog):
Here's the same indicators back in 2001,
Business-Cycle Peak of March 2001
No one knows what the real state of the economy is in today. Only the future can tell us what is happening today.