Green, Blue, Teal, and Beige: What Do These Colors Mean at the Fed?
Three research documents play an important role in the monetary policy process and at Federal Open Market Committee meetings. Up until 2010, a detailed national forecast for the next three years, generated by the Federal Reserve Board of Governor’s Research and Statistics Division, was placed between green covers and was thus known as the “green book.” Projections for the monetary aggregates prepared by the Monetary Affairs Division of the Board of Governors, along with typically three alternative scenarios for monetary policy decisions (labeled A, B, and C), were contained in the “blue book” in blue covers. Both books were distributed to all participants in FOMC meetings. Starting in 2010, the green and the blue book were combined into the “teal book” with teal covers: teal is the color that is a combination of green and blue.* The “beige book,” with beige covers, is produced by the Reserve banks and details evidence gleaned either from surveys or from talks with key businesses and financial institutions on the state of the economy in each of the Federal Reserve districts. This is the only one of the books that is distributed publicly, and it often receives a lot of attention in the press.