The Federal Reserve's periodic Beige Book, which assesses economic trends in various parts of the country, is dominated this time around by the one thing everyone has been talking about lately: the weather. The severe winter has been a pain for many of us personally, but it also dominated a lot of financial activity. According to one report, the new Beige Book mentions the word "weather" 119 times.
Not surprisingly, the impact was worst here in the Northeast. Eight out of the Fed's 12 offices reported that economic activity was expanding; two of the ones who didn't were New York and Philadelphia, which also cover, between them, the state of New Jersey. Both those offices blamed the weather for their economic slowdown.
The Philadelphia office also noted that mall traffic was down 40 percent over the Valentine's Day weekend, usually one of the biggest shopping times of the year. Meanwhile the New York office reported that gift card redemptions were very low, which could signal that spending will rebound when the weather does.
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