Beige Book
The Beige Book — officially known as the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District — is produced eight times each year prior to Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. The information in the Beige Book is gathered primarily through interviews with business people in each District, as well as from Federal Reserve Bank and Branch directors. The publication's original purpose was to supplement official statistics with more current anecdotal accounts of the economic environment in order to assist policymakers during FOMC deliberations.
On this page you can find several ways to look at Beige Book reports, both for the Fourth District and the other 11 Federal Reserve Districts.
Fourth District
Fourth District Beige Book—Complete Report
Entire Beige Book
If you want to see the entire contents of a district's Beige Book report, try either of the following sites:
- Board of Governors. This site has complete Beige Book contents going back to 1996. It's easy to find the complete report for a given district or the complete report of all the districts for a given day. You choose the day you're interested in via a handy calendar interface.
- Beige Book Archive. This Minneapolis Fed site has Beige Book contents going back to 1970. Here, you can select complete reports for any given district or the complete national summary using a drop-down search tool.
Compare Beige Book Contents
Our Beige Book comparison tool allows you to compare current and previous reports on the District with those for the nation. Or you can see how sectors are changing over time within one District by comparing the current report with those that came previously. The tool also allows you to consider how well the Beige Book forecasts various economic events, such as the recession in 2001. Our comparison tool lets you place comparable sections from different districts or dates side by side.