On Thursday, September 26, the Chicago Fed was pleased to host a presentation by Steve Landefeld, the Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), to the Chicago Area Business Economists (CABE). The BEA is the government agency responsible for producing key statistics such as gross domestic product, GDP, a measure of economic output, and the personal consumption expenditure price in... Read More

A summary of economic conditions in the Seventh District from the latest release of the Beige Book and from other indicators of regional business activity: Overall conditions: The pace of economic activity in the Seventh District improved in July and August, and contacts generally expected growth to remain modera... Read More

Central cities are not likely to regain their former population. However, some of them may have reached an important inflection point—people are moving back into some of the largest (and longest-declining) cities. For example, New York City's population has increased by more than one million since 1990, after declining by about one million between 1950 and 1980. Over the past decade, ni... Read More

There are many important channels through which the actions of the federal government affect the national economy, with varied effects among the states.1 Among these channels, the direct disbursement of federal funds is sizable, amounting to $3.76 trillion in calendar year 2012. These disbursements include direct federal government programmatic spending for payroll and procurement; payme... Read More

A summary of economic conditions in the Seventh District from the latest release of the Beige Book and from other indicators of regional business activity: • Overall conditions: Economic activity in the Seventh District expanded at a moderate pace in June, and contacts remained cautiously optimistic about growth prospects in the second half of the year. • Consumer spending: Growth in consumer sp... Read More

Throughout the Great Recession and the first few years of the subsequent economic expansion, the markets for homes and related building activity failed to contribute to national and regional growth. In fact, over the calendar years 2008–10, residential investment subtracted from overall U.S. economic activity at an average pace of 1 percent.[1] More recently, however, residential real estate marke... Read More

What are the near-term prospects for economic growth in the industrial Midwest? In part because the Midwest is steeped in the production of durable goods, such as automobiles and machinery, its economy has long experienced more-pronounced swings over the business cycle than the overall U.S. economy. The current expansion following the Great Recession has been no exception. Until last yea... Read More

Mexico's auto industry has experienced tremendous growth since the mid-1980s. Last year, 19% of all light vehicles produced in North America originated in Mexico (see table 1). That is up sharply from 20 years ago and puts Mexico ahead of Canada in terms of the number of vehicles produced. Table 1: Distribution of light vehicle production in North America ... Read More

A summary of economic conditions in the Seventh District from the latest release of the Beige Book and from other indicators of regional business activity: Overall conditions: Economic activity in the Seventh District again expanded at a modest pace. Consumer spending: Growth in consumer spending increas... Read More

Some local policy leaders remain optimistic about the growth prospects for manufacturing in the Chicago area. For example, a recent development strategy from the Mayor's office and World Business Chicago proclaims that “Chicago can preserve its competitiveness in manufacturing, a key component of the region's economy, by capitalizing on the shift into high-tech products and processes und... Read More