The Missouri and Kansas economies improved slightly during the fall of 2011. Employment in Kansas showed signs of consistent growth after weakening earlier in the year, while Missouri employment growth was flat. The Kansas unemployment rate edged up slightly, and the Missouri unemployment rate...

The Kansas and Missouri economies improved somewhat during the summer, but the pace of activity was fairly slow. Employment in Missouri remains above year-ago levels. In Kansas, employment growth over the past year was zero after being in negative territory for the last year. Unemployment rates...

The St. Louis Fed’s Agricultural Finance Monitor quarterly reports on regional agricultural financial conditions, as well as bankers’ expectations of farmland values, farm loan repayment rates, required collateral, farm loan interest rates and credit supply and demand.

Despite historic drought conditions, crop producers and lenders in Eighth District states appear likely to exit the year in satisfactory financial condition, but the situation is somewhat different for livestock producers.

Although the drought’s effects on the Seventh Federal Reserve District lingered, the year-over-year increase in agricultural land values only eased to 13 percent in the third quarter of 2012. In addition, there was a quarterly gain of 5 percent in the value of “good” farmland—actually...

Implications of the 2008 farm bill for the Ninth District

As consumer demand grows, so do Ninth District farmers markets