Greenbook/Tealbook

Prefatory Note The attached document represents the most complete and accurate version available based on original copies culled from the files of the FOMC Secretariat at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. This electronic document was created through a comprehensive digitization process which included identifying the bestpreserved paper copies, scanning those copies, 1 and then making the scanned versions text-searchable. 2 Though a stringent quality assurance process was employed, some imperfections may remain. Please note that some material may have been redacted from this document if that material was received on a confidential basis. Redacted material is indicated by occasional gaps in the text or by gray boxes around non-text content. All redacted passages are exempt from disclosure under applicable provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. 1 In some cases, original copies needed to be photocopied before being scanned into electronic format. All scanned images were deskewed (to remove the effects of printer- and scanner-introduced tilting) and lightly cleaned (to remove dark spots caused by staple holes, hole punches, and other blemishes caused after initial printing). 2 A two-step process was used. An advanced optical character recognition computer program (OCR) first created electronic text from the document image. Where the OCR results were inconclusive, staff checked and corrected the text as necessary. Please note that the numbers and text in charts and tables were not reliably recognized by the OCR process and were not checked or corrected by staff. Content last modified 6/05/2009. CONFIDENTIAL (FR) SUPPLEMENT CURRENT ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CONDITIONS Prepared for the Federal Open Market Committee By the Staff Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System December 11, 1964 SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES The Domestic Economy Industrial production in November was 134.9 per cent of the 1957-59 average compared with 131.6 in October and 134.0 in September. (Confidential until released, probably Tuesday, December 15) A sharp rise in output in the auto industry, despite the Ford strike, and further gains in output in many other industries pushed the November index to a level 7 per cent higher than a year eorlier. According to the Commerce advance report, seasonally adjusted retail sales in November showed a decline of one-half of 1 per cent (earlier estimates based on available weekly data had indicated a larger decline). The reduction was attributable to lagging nondurable sales (off 1.2 per cent) with declines registered among most categories. Durable goods sales, reflecting moderate gains at automotive outlets as supplies increased with General Motors back in production, were up slightly from the sharply reduced October level. Furniture and appli- ance sales were little changed from October. The Domestic Financial Situation Markets for corporate and municipal bonds have continued to strengthen this week. Two large new issues of lower investment grade corporate bonds sold out quickly, showing marked yield declines in secondary trading; and yields on other recently distributed corporate issues also edged slightly lower. In the municipal market, bidding for the week's large new supply of bonds was fairly aggressive. Retail demand was reported to be quite good for most issues, with the $104 million of Public Housing Authority bonds reported about 70 per cent sold. Yields on Aaa-rated seasoned bonds dropped to 3.01 per cent, their lowest level since late May 1963. Common stock prices, as measured by Standard and Poor's composite index of 500 stocks, have declined this week, with trading activity rising a little to 4.9 million shares a day. On December 10, the index closed at 83.45, which was 3-1/3 per cent below the all-time high reached November 20. In the May-June and July-August stock market declines earlier this year, the index declined 3-1/8 and 3-1/4 per cent, respectively. International developments In Britain, the Bank of England wrote to the British commercial banks on December 9, requesting that they be more selective in their lending, giving priority to exports and to productive investment programs. The letter also suggested that the pressures on bank liquidity that are developing for seasonal and other reasons are not likely to be relieved by the Bank of England. 

Federal Reserve (1964, December 14). Greenbook/Tealbook. Greenbooks, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/greenbook_19641215_part1

@misc{wtfs_greenbook_19641215_part1,
  author = {Federal Reserve},
  title = {Greenbook/Tealbook},
  year = {1964},
  month = {Dec},
  howpublished = {Greenbooks, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/greenbook_19641215_part1},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}