The Brave-Butters-Kelley Indexes (BBKI) are a research project of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The BBK Coincident and Leading Indexes and Monthly GDP Growth for the U.S. are constructed from a collapsed dynamic factor analysis of a panel of 500 monthly measures of real economic activity and quarterly real GDP growth. Monthly updates to the BBKI are released at 8:30 a.m. ET on scheduled days.

The Midwest Economy Index (MEI) is a monthly index designed to measure growth in nonfarm business activity in the Seventh Federal Reserve District. It serves as a regional counterpart to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI). The MEI is released at 8:30 a.m. ET on scheduled days, normally toward the end of each calendar month.

After the third straight “wettest May on record” for Chicago, if you’re a Chicagoan you may be wondering if your home is at risk for serious flooding. One way to figure this out might be to look at the flood maps provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the federal agency in charge of national disaster preparedness and relief. FEMA flood maps say that only 0.3% of properties (three out of every 1,000) should flood more than once every 100 years. If you base your opinion of your home’s flood risk on FEMA flood maps alone, you will probably think your home is safe. However, if you watched the news coverage of the May 2020 storms with images of the Riverwalk underwater, the Willis Tower as a dark obelisk in the skyline after its basement flooded, neighborhood streets turned into rivers, and yards turned into ponds, you may be thinking that risk assessment seems too low, and you’d be right. In this blog, I discuss flooding in Chicago and why FEMA flood maps...

How can government, philanthropy, education, and the private sector work together to make workplaces safe under pandemic conditions and get displaced workers back to work? What strategies can be built into such efforts to improve the long-run job prospects for racially diverse and economically disadvantaged workers? Chicago leaders from business, labor, education, and workforce development organizations will discuss these questions.

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Scott A. Brave is a senior policy economist in the economic research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. His chief responsibilities include the releases for the Chicago Fed's National Activity, Midwest Economy and Financial Conditions Indexes and its Survey of Business Conditions. Brave received a B.A. in economics with honors from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. with concentrations in economics, statistics and finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

In a previous Chicago Fed Insights blog post, we took a closer look at what drives the correlation between Google Trends unemployment topic indexes1 and state initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims at the U.S. metro area level. We found that the positive correlation between Google search intensity for unemployment-related terms and the rate of UI take-up during the Covid-19 pandemic was primarily driven by variation within U.S. metro areas across time (the time series dimension) and less so by variation across U.S. metro areas within weeks (the cross-sectional dimension). In this blog post, we examine how this correlation during the current recession compares with the correlation during the previous recession. We find that differences in the correlations across the two recessions can mostly be explained by the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

The Brave-Butters-Kelley Indexes (BBKI) are a research project of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The BBK Coincident and Leading Indexes and Monthly GDP Growth for the U.S. are constructed from a collapsed dynamic factor analysis of a panel of 500 monthly measures of real economic activity and quarterly real GDP growth. Monthly updates to the BBKI are released at 8:30 a.m. ET on scheduled days.

You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

Transcript 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago invites you to a virtual convening on Minority Middle Neighborhoods in a Time of Crisis. The event will take place on Wednesday July 29 from 12 pm – 1 pm CT.

This forum is part of Project Hometown, a new initiative from the Chicago Fed that aims to foster discussion around the challenges and opportunities confronting hometowns in the Seventh District.

Chicago has a rich history of minority "middle" neighborhoods. These are neighborhoods that for decades had a large base of middle- and working-class residents, high rates of home-ownership, and active commercial corridors. But as places in the city have become more unequal, these predominantly minority neighborhoods have become increasingly vulnerable to economic shocks. Covid-19, the economic slowdown, and civil unrest have magnified the challenges.

Our goal with this forum, consistent with Project Hometown, is to bring...

The Midwest Economy Index (MEI) is a monthly index designed to measure growth in nonfarm business activity in the Seventh Federal Reserve District. It serves as a regional counterpart to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI). The MEI is released at 8:30 a.m. ET on scheduled days, normally toward the end of each calendar month.

Federal Reserve Financial Services is committed to maintaining a high level of preparedness to meet the needs of financial institutions for a range of scenarios, including those relevant to the recent public health emergency caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19). We want to reassure you that our services are fully operational and we do not anticipate any business disruptions. Customers should continue to follow their normal procedures for contacting the Federal Reserve Banks.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago invites you to join us for a virtual convening on "Public Education in Chicago During the Pandemic – Challenges for Fall 2020" to be held on August 3, 2020 from noon-1pm (CDT).

This forum is part of Project Hometown, a new initiative from the Chicago Fed that aims to foster discussion around the challenges and opportunities confronting hometowns in the Seventh District.

The pandemic forced a sudden transition to remote learning. Although students, parents and educators are striving to adapt, the risk of massive and inequitable losses of learning still remains. And even before the pandemic, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), like many other school districts, was confronting challenges in educating all its students. Education leaders and stakeholders will discuss the challenges and opportunities confronting CPS and its students, and how we might address them.

This panel, as other Project Hometown events, brings...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago invites you to join us for a virtual convening on "Public Education in Chicago During the Pandemic – Challenges for Fall 2020" to be held on August 3, 2020 from noon-1pm (CDT).

This forum is part of Project Hometown, a new initiative from the Chicago Fed that aims to foster discussion around the challenges and opportunities confronting hometowns in the Seventh District.

The pandemic forced a sudden transition to remote learning. Although students, parents and educators are striving to adapt, the risk of massive and inequitable losses of learning still remains. And even before the pandemic, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), like many other school districts, was confronting challenges in educating all its students. Education leaders and stakeholders will discuss the challenges and opportunities confronting CPS and its students, and how we might address them.

This panel, as other Project Hometown events, brings...