NPR.

Robert, you will never guess where I was last week.

I heard you were inside the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.

I imagine there are piles of money everywhere.

Not that they let me infiltrate, but I was there to moderate a panel, and they didn't

want me recording any Fed business, though I was able to sneak a little voice memo of the

catering spread.

Ooh.

Breakfast, they had a yogurt bar, and they had a lovely fruit spread, raspberries, blueberries,

not just the honeydew and the cantaloupe.

They had very nice feature fruit, not just the filler fruit.

And apparently a great soundtrack, too.

It is good to be the organization that creates money.

Yes, and I was invited because we here at The Indicator are the biggest fans of one of the obscure

documents the Federal Reserve puts out, the beige book. We are obsessed with the beige book.

And every time it comes out, we do a little award show to celebrate. I warn them, though, raspberries cannot bribe us. We are as impartial as ever. Let the chocolate

chips fall where they may on the metaphorical yogurt bar breakfast buffet.

It's the Basia Awards, our eight times a year's salute to the art and science of telling stories about the economy.

I'm Robert Smith.

And I'm Waylon Wong.

The last beige book of 2024 is like Spotify wrapped, but for the economy, there's a little bit of everything inside, labor markets, inflation, and even natural disasters.

We'll let you know who wears the crown going into 2025 after the break.

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