Where inflation hits hardest

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The most recent Beige Book featured a little of everything — economic anecdotes from around the country, some positive, some not so good. But one Fed branch's contribution stood about above the rest.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:07.0	Hey Robert, why did you want me to meet you in this virtual playground?
0:18.5	I am contemplating the economy while sitting on a teeter-totter.
0:22.4	I called it a seesaw when I was growing up.
0:25.6	Apparently in England they call it a Brewsters Willie Milley.
0:28.8	Now you just made that up.
0:30.4	Next you'll be telling me there was once an Earl of Sandwich.
0:33.0	It's true, I did make it up.
0:36.4	But that's not important right now.
0:37.6	What's important is the metaphor of the seesaw.
0:40.6	I was thinking about it as I was reading a publication called The Summary of Commentary
0:45.4	on Current Economic Conditions.
0:47.8	Growing up I called that the Beige Book.
0:49.9	The Beige Book published by the Fed has all these stories about what's happening in the
0:53.5	economy right now and this time it's all topsy-turvy.
0:58.2	Like a teeter-totter.
0:59.4	Like a teeter-totter.
1:00.4	In some areas in some sectors prices are still going up but in other places we're seeing
1:04.5	prices drop.
1:06.2	Some people are finding that it's easier to hire workers.
1:09.3	Other companies have turned to extreme measures to get the people they need.
1:13.6	Restaurants are booming in Little Rock but struggling in Kansas City.
	...

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