Video Webcasts

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 10/4/23

Last week’s plentiful economic news netted out to support our optimistic economic outlook through next year, bringing more signs of improving productivity, surging investment in manufacturing, and manageable inventories. Last week also brought some mixed news and some outright bad news, but we still see a 75% chance of a soft-landing scenario with disinflation and a 25% chance of a hard landing. Longer term, we’re still convinced that

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 9/27/23

The Fed has paused its rate hiking for now but not without warning that resumed tightening is possible. Either way, monetary policy will be kept restrictive for longer than investors previously expected, Fed Chair Powell has said. What does that scenario imply for the economic outlook? Peaks in the federal funds rate are coincident indicators of financial crises caused by restrictive policy, which often trigger credit crunches and recessions. That’

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 9/8/23

What would it take for the Fed to abandon its hawkish stance? Three things, suggested Fed Chair Powell’s recent Jackson Hole speech: core PCED inflation dropping closer to 2% y/y, demand for labor dropping closer to the supply of it, and consumer spending cooling off a bit. All that can happen without a recession, as it has twice before in recent history, and the latest data on all

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 9/6/23

Is the surprising Q3 strength in the economy sustainable? Clues in the latest data releases suggest not, and our forecast calls for a renewed soft landing. A stronger-for-longer economy wouldn’t jibe with the Fed’s higher-for-longer interest-rate stance. ... But the economic outlook hinges much on what consumers do next. We don’t see them slamming on the spending brakes, as the hard-landers predict will happen when excess savings are

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 8/30/23

Today, we examine Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech on Friday. The tone was more hawkish than we expected, with Powell saying that the Fed wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates further if needed to bring inflation back down to the Fed’s 2.0% target but failing to say what it would take for the Fed to lower interest rates given that inflation has been moderating.

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 8/23/23

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 8/16/23

Is the federal budget deficit getting too big for the bond market to fund without yields moving higher? That seems to be a growing concern in both the bond and stock markets. In the past, bond yields were determined mostly by the Fed’s response to inflation, which is moderating; supply and demand didn’t matter much, but they may now. Today, we examine why this period of deficit widening

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 8/9/23

This is ironic: Just when the most widely anticipated recession of all times is no longer widely anticipated, July’s employment report suggests that the Index of Coincident Economic Indicators is weakening. … With the consensus now elbow-to-elbow with us in the no-recession camp, our contrarian instincts are on full alert. The alternative scenarios of two prominent financial market prognosticators may give investors pause and keep the stock market treading water

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 8/2/23

We’re raising the subjective odds we assign to the no-landing economic scenario through year-end 2024 (by 10% to 85%) and lowering our odds of a hard landing (by 10% to 15%). But we’re keeping close tabs on hard-landers’ latest arguments. Today, we summarize the main ones and give our rebuttals. … The biggest issue dividing the two camps is the outlook for consumer spending, representing over two-thirds of nominal

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 7/26/23

The urban office real estate niche of the commercial real estate market is increasingly distressed owing to the work-from-home trend escalated by Covid. But the problem is contained to the office districts of big cities, and we expect the fallout to be contained too: Sellers of distressed properties will take losses but find buyers, exposed banks will further increase loan loss provisions, increased M&A activity among small banks

Dr Ed's Video Webcast 7/19/23

Big banks’ top managements sounded relatively sanguine about the economy as they reported solid Q2 results, though JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon hasn’t totally abandoned the recession storyline that spooked investors a year ago. … There are two versions of the bearish economic script now, one seeing recession at the hands of savings-drained consumers and other seeing recession at the hands of the inflation-fighting Fed. We counter these narratives with