Video Webcasts

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 1/17/24

The runaway inflation of the 1970s was whipped only after Paul Volcker took over as Fed chief, doing the deed but not without precipitating a recession. Powell’s efforts to engineer “immaculate disinflation,” lowering inflation without a recession, have gone well so far, as we’ve been expecting. But the specter of 1970s inflation’s twin peaks must keep him up at nights now that Middle East hostilities raise the

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 1/10/24

The point between Fed tightening and easing is a good time to reconsider the widely accepted long-and-variable-lags theory of monetary policy. Is the economy still vulnerable to recession from the lagged effects of the 2022-2023 tightening round? We don’t think so. The markets have already started to ease, which should offset some lagged tightening effects. Furthermore, lagged tightening effects don’t invariably cause recessions. Our work shows that recessions

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 1/3/24

How likely is the stock market to have a down year in 2024? Since down years tend to be associated with recessions, and since a recession is unlikely now that inflation has been approaching the Fed’s target, and since the Fed looks more likely to ease than not, it’s hard to see the stock market ending 2024 lower than it began. Our last Morning Briefing of 2023 provided

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 12/20/23

The bears who still expect a recession base their arguments on historical precedents: At times in the past when economic indicators were flashing the signs they are today, recessions occurred. But we see good reasons not to apply past rules of thumb to the current set of circumstances. Moreover, our Roaring 2020s thesis that widespread adoption of new technologies will set off a productivity boom is unfolding. As a result,

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 12/14/23

The economy has proven resilient, defying all the reasons it shouldn’t be, to which diehard hard landers still cling. We expect that it will remain resilient and that inflation will continue to fall to the Fed’s target (a.k.a. “immaculate disinflation”). In this scenario, the Fed won’t be rushing to ease and won’t ease by much. The Fed’s policy stance is perhaps better cast

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 12/6/23

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/29/23

Our Roaring 2020s outlook for this decade centers on the idea that technological innovations such as the so-called BRAIN technologies will be widely adopted by companies, fueling productivity growth that minimizes the economy’s major problem of a tight labor market and drives widespread prosperity. The pandemic derailed a productivity boom that started gathering steam in late 2015 and is just this year getting back on track. We think the

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/15/23

The stock market has a good track record as a business-cycle indicator, even though last year’s bear market was a false alarm, as investors expected a recession that never came. Since that bear market ended, in October 2022, the stock market has been in a bull market, with its August-through-October weakness simply a correction. Now the Bond Vigilantes and their concerns have retreated, clearing the way for the S&

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/8/23

Last week brought epic rallies in both the stock and bond markets. We think the stock market’s correction is over and that the S&P 500 is back on track to end the year at 4600. All 11 sectors gained ground last week, many enjoying their best week in nearly a year. As for the bond market rally that carried the 10-year Treasury bond yield down to a

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/1/23

We recently raised our subjective odds of a US recession before year-end 2024 from 25% to 35% mostly because the geopolitical risks continue to escalate. We see two potential scenarios that could result in a recession, but they don’t warrant raising our recession odds at this time. The US economy remains resilient; we review recent areas of strength. Also: Further escalation of war in the Middle East could bring

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 10/25/23

The Middle East crisis seems to be escalating into a regional war with US involvement, existential stakes, and global effects. The S&P 500 fell to its 200-day moving average on Friday in response to the geopolitical risks. We expect it to breach that level this week even if the bond yield declines. The escalation of hostilities we expect prompts us to raise our odds of a US recession