No joy, nothing positive for the battered US economy in coming months: in fact conditions are worsening and that could continue for some time.
In Europe similar bad news.
The Bank of England cut its key rate half a per cent to 0.50% and said it would inject inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the UK economy to try and get banks lending.
And the European Central Bank cut its rate 0.50% to 1.50% and then surprised with a sharp downgrade for eurozone growth for 2009: there will be none, in fact a slump of 2.7%, the steepest so far forecast.
And no growth at all is forecast for next year when a previous estimate had the eurozone growing 1%.
It was enough to send tremors through markets, as did big losses on a British insurer, Aviva and in the US a stark warning that the tottering General Motors will fail without more Government support.
Coming on top of a fall in factory orders for yet another month, poor retail sales, it added to the message from the Fed’s latest Beige Book.
A combination of the Beige Book from the US Federal Reserve, which looks at economic conditions across its 12 reporting districts, plus speeches by senior Fed members yesterday, painted a terrible picture of the US economy.
But the two members of the Fed said they were still confident that forceful policy action will help end the more than 14 month long recession.
Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, said it was hard to "be upbeat about the immediate future".
Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, said indicators show the economy to be on track for another sharp fall this quarter.
Mr Lockhart also touched on an emerging concern in the US: commercial property which is starting to tank.
"Declining commercial real estate markets could put further pressure on already strained financial institutions and markets," he warned in a speech in Miami, Florida, where much of the subprime mess and some of the commercial property problems are to be found.
Fisher in fact wondered if the US economy would have two years of recession, which started in December 2007.
Judging by the Beige Book, that’s a very legitimate wondering.
It showed that manufacturing, services, car sales, exports, employment, housing and finance are all seeing intensifying slumps. The report was again depressingly grim again, on top of January’s gloom.
Housing “remained in the doldrums in most areas,” the Fed said, and lending fell across the country and credit availability “remained tight”.
"Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that national economic conditions deteriorated further during the reporting period of January through late February.
Ten of the twelve reports indicated weaker conditions or declines in economic activity; the exceptions were Philadelphia and Chicago, which reported that their regional economies “remained weak.”
"The deterioration was broad based, with only a few sectors such as basic food production and pharmaceuticals appearing to be exceptions.
"Looking ahead, contacts from various Districts rate the prospects for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010."
The Beige Book said unemployment is up in “all areas, reducing or eliminating upward wage pressures.
Weaker demand is spurring discounting of goods other than fuel and food, the Fed said. As such, “upward price pressures continued to ease across a broad spectrum of final goods and services,” the Fed said.
“Consumer spending remained very weak on balance, albeit with slight firming noted by many districts,” the Fed report said.
About half of the districts said consumer demand was slower or “fell significantly” from a year earlier.
Reports on manufacturing activity suggested steep declines in activity in some sectors and pronounced declines overall.
"Conditions weakened somewhat for agricultural producers and substantially for extractors of natural resources, with reduced global demand cited as an underlying determinant in both cases.
"Markets for residential real estate remained largely stagnant, with only minimal and scattered signs of stabilization emerging in some areas, while demand for commercial real estate weakened significantly.
"Reports from banks and other financial institutions indicated further drops in business loan demand, a slight deterioration in credit quality for businesses and households, and continued tight credit availability."
In January, Fed officials downgraded their forecasts for growth this year, seeing a deeper contraction as the credit crunch tightens.
The new forecast was for a contraction of 0.5% to 1.3% for 2009, with an upturn later in the year after a tough first quarter. The next Fed meeting is the week after next.
But it’s starting to look from reports that this quarter could be tougher than the December quarter, which was the worst since 1982.
We will get a better idea tonight when US jobs and unemployment data for February is released.
A survey Wednesday said US companies cut 697,000 jobs last month: analysts said the fall in the ADP Employer Services gauge, a survey based on payroll data, was larger than forecast and followed a revised drop of 614,000 in January.
And US service sector (the dominant part of the economy) activity continued to contract last month.
The Institute for Supply Managemen
