America Has Come A Long Way Since The Fed Made This Horrific Red Map

Yesterday, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve published its latest report on state coincident indicators, which measures economic activity growth on a rolling three month basis.

Through January 2013, 41 out of 50 states were showing increasing levels of activity.

However, this wasn't always the case.

During the peak of the financial crisis in spring of 2009, most states were growing at a horrific negative rate.

With each report, the Philly Fed publishes a color coded map. And in April 2009, it was blood stained red, which meant most states were contracting at faster than a 1 percent rate.

From the Fed in April 2009:

In the past month, the indexes increased in three states, decreased in 45, and were unchanged in the other two, for a one-month diffusion index of -84. Over the past three months, the indexes decreased in all 50 states, for a three-month diffusion index of -100. For comparison purposes, the Philadelphia Fed developed a similar coincident index for the entire United States. The Philadelphia Fed’s U.S. index fell 0.4 percent in April and 1.4 percent over the past three months.

This is ugly: