Hate to be a killjoy on the doom-and-gloom scene, but the Federal Reserve's "beige book" report finds that business activity "increased slightly" in December in the Philadelphia region.
Manufacturers? "Modest increases in new orders and shipments."
And those banks I wondered about this morning? "Overall bank lending has been rising slowly, with better growth in business lending than in consumer and real estate lending."
Retail was soft and residential real estate sales were lower than last year. But the big service sector reports business has been "expanding steadily."
And the overall forecast? Continued growth, but companies have "scaled back their forecasts for 2008."
