美联储褐皮书显示8月经济温和增长

Thanks for that update, Charlie. The beige book headlines are crossing. We do see the beige book right now. The anecdotal information from the Federal Reserve districts around the country, economic activity increased modestly since early July, and employment rose very slightly overall. Michael McKee is with us. He's Bloomberg TV and radio, international economics and policy correspondent. He joins us here on the Bloomberg Businessweek studio.

What did we learn? Doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of change between what we had seen for the last couple of months and this latest report, which is basically covers the month of August economic activity, they said, up modestly. They say that manufacturing activity picked up across most districts, and the services firms reported slight to modest increases. This is the one I liked. Residential construction declined while nonresidential construction increased, and you'll be shocked to know that some districts noted a high concentration of activity related to data center projects.

Gonna say that. You knew I was gonna You knew I was gonna say that. So if we can't find a house, we can live in a data center? Is that what you're saying? The general outlook for the coming months was positive. The Beige Book said the sentiment was mixed across sectors with contacts reporting heightened uncertainty surrounding the effects of higher energy prices, policy, and international conflict. Now if I had read this to you in mid July or mid June, totally would have not sounded out of place.

So I think, basically, what the Fed is getting here is the same sort of information that people have been giving us for quite some time. The economy seems to be in status quo, expanding, and labor markets seem to be relatively steady. But there are concerns about inflation, and everybody's keeping an eye on what's going on in The Middle East. Yes. What about the health of the Americans consumer? According to the the story here, retail was depending on what you were buying, people were looking both at the prices.

There was heightened price sensitivity, but spending did grow slightly. Solid high end purchases on the other side. So them what have it are gonna get more. There you go. Michael McKee, our a Bloomberg television and radio international economics and policy correspondent with The Beige Book joining us here in the Bloomberg Businessweek studio.