According to the Federal Reserve, the worst has yet to come

The Beige Book comes out 6 times a year and takes a broad look at the economy through 12 U.S. districts. According to today's report, conditions have continued to weaken in 10 out of the 12 districts, with the exceptions being in Philadelphia and Chicago. In these two districts things have continued to remain weak, but at least had not declined in economic activity.

The markets have decided to overlook today's report, possibly because it is something that we all already knew, and focused on other news in pushing the major indexes higher. Positive news came out of China today in that the country is considering doubling its current $585 billion stimulus package. The country is expected to announce changes to its stimulus package tomorrow.

In other positive news from China, the country announced that its purchasing manager's index for February rose to 49.0 from 45.3. The report is an measure of the country's manufacturing, and today's report marks the third straight month that the index has risen. In contrast to the American view that the economy will not rebound until the latter part of the year at the earliest, Chinese officials indicated that their view of the Chinese economy is that it will start to rebound in the first half of 2009.

So for today, the markets were able to overlook the grim economic view from the Fed, but the question remains whether or not this optimism will carry over into the next few sessions. With all indications that the recession is moving full speed ahead, I believe that we can expect to see some more selling in the weeks and months to come.

What are your thoughts on the economy? When do you expect to see things start to rebound, and should we expect a bounce this year, or do you think we will have to wait until 2010 to see things finally start to improve? Let us hear your thoughts!