2024-12-11
8 分钟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 in 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 awards 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 Beigey Awards, our eight times a year salute to the art and science of telling stories about the economy.
I'm Robert Smith.
And I'm Weilin Wong.
The last beige book of 2024 is like Spotify wrapped, but for the economy.