NPR. Hey Robert, I hear birds. Are you hanging out at a park? I am, but not just any park. It's right next to LaGuardia Airport, so I can watch these jumbo jets soar in for a landing.

Here's what now overhead.

This plane is so huge and it's moving so fast, but it's still graceful when it touches down,

Whelan.

Did you go all the way out there for a metaphor about our economy having a soft landing?

Don't say it out loud.

You'll jinx it, but yes, I was reading the Bage book this month

and I kept seeing all these softer words being used that in places employment is stable, and price increases are

moderate and consumer spending is flat.

The beige book is that obscure government report that we love to analyze here at the indicator.

But with all that moderation, was there anything exciting in there?

Yes, yes there was.

It's the Baysia Awards.

Our eight times a year salute to the art and

I'm science and I'm Wailin Wong and just because the beige book is an economic report with a boring name doesn't mean it's soft in the middle

today we go hard looking for the best anecdotes inside.

After the break. It's always good to remind everyone how this show works.

There are 12 regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, each one carefully studies their

local economy and brings back these little stories of what they see.

They collect these stories in the Beige book and we tell you which ones are the best.

And this is one of the toughest competitions we've had all year.

Two regional feds were really neck and neck with their narratives about the economy.

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