The FRB has just published its Beige Book which provides reports from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. The FRB Open Market Committee uses the Beige Book as one of its primary sources of ecnomic analysis for making decisions affecting monetary policy. The reports "suggest that economic activity continued to be weak going into the summer, but most Districts indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a a low level." It also noted that laber markets were extremely soft....and we all know that any recovery has to be built on job growth and job security....so, while the economy may technically be stabilizing and getting ready to turn the corner - most people will not feel the recovery any time soon - and for those of us in commercial real estate which lags the general economy, we are no where near seeing the light at the end of the tunnel....demand for our products needs to return and we have a lot of issues to resolve to bring capital back to refinance our maturing loans...Still, this is good bedtime reading....It is available at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/FOMC/BeigeBook/2009/20090729/fullreport20090729.pdf