How many times can you say uncertainty in one economic report?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Uncertainty. That's the word-of-the-moment with tariffs, market swings and lots of economic volatility. It's also showing up in the Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book, featuring anecdotes across the U.S. economy. On our latest edition of the Beigies, what can a farmer from the Mississippi Delta tell us about uncertainty?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.0	Whalen, what do you think when you hear the word beige?
0:16.4	Well, Robert Smith, my first instinct is to think about the government publication known as the
0:21.7	beige book.
0:22.4	Because you're a nerd.
0:24.1	And how we at The Indicator always do a fun show when the beige book is released.
0:29.2	I mean, we kind of invented the beige franchise and podcasting.
0:33.2	So imagine my horror.
0:35.2	When I discovered that two TikTok influencers are fighting over who owns the beige aesthetic in social media.
0:43.8	How very dare they?
0:45.5	I do know there is something called the clean girl vibe on the internet, women who love to wear neutral and cream and have immaculate minimalist houses. I know nothing about this
0:56.2	being cluttered and maximalist myself. Well, apparently there are two women who do live that way,
1:01.6	and they're trying to market that same vibe, and one has sued the other for $150,000 for mental
1:08.5	anguish. Legal experts are calling it the sad beige lawsuit.
1:13.6	Well, that sounds super depressing, so maybe we should emphasize that we invented the happy
1:19.2	beige vibe.
1:20.5	And I will note that the beige book was first published by the Federal Reserve 55 years ago.
1:25.4	So maybe we should all be paying them.
1:27.5	They've got enough gold in their vault, Robert. Let's just give them an award.
1:34.2	It's the Beesia Awards. Our eight times a year salute to the art and science of telling
1:40.2	stories about the economy. I'm Robert Smith. And I'm Waylon Wong. We may not be on the
1:45.4	cutting edge of fashion, but we know what's hot and what's not in the economy. On this edition of the
	...

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