Roaring 2020s Tour Deep In The Heart Of Texas

As Taylor Swift ends her Eras tour, Dr Ed starts his Roaring 2020s Tour to meet with our accounts. Last week in Texas, they shared their concerns about the “known unknowns,” as the new administration represents a significant policy regime change. On balance, Trump 2.0 should perpetuate our Roaring 2020s scenario. Fortunately, the US economy and financial markets are resilient and tend to outperform globally whomever occupies the White House, thanks to Americans’ indomitable entrepreneurial spirit. … Also: The labor market remains strong, notwithstanding the weakness of some less creditable indicators. … And: Consumers are still doing what they do best.

Live Long & Prosper!

Today, Dr. Ed examines Baby Boomer economics. The Boomers are sitting on sizable nest eggs that continue to expand along with home prices and stock prices. They are starting to spend more of their net worth as they retire. Many Boomers are not empty nesters but have grown children living at home and are providing them with financial support. The population bulge that has had outsized effects on markets in the general economy at every life phase is now the wealthiest and healthiest generation in history—and spending like it. That’s one of the many reasons we remain bullish on the US economy and stock market.

Is Trump 2.0 Bullish Or Bearish?

With economic growth robust and the stock market at a record high, we’re living the Roaring 2020s now. The economy’s resilience has been remarkable considering the headwinds it has faced. While the outlook under Trump 2.0 involves lots of moving parts, we don’t see the net effects of his policies jeopardizing the Roaring 2020s’ continuation. In this scenario (with our 55% subjective probability), Trump 2.0 might boost productivity and economic growth, keep inflation subdued, shrink the federal government, slow the growth of government spending, and narrow the federal deficit. Among the biggest of the many challenges ahead: not inciting the Bond Vigilantes.

Trumped

The US Constitution was designed to promote gridlock. But the benefits of gridlock are undermined by lawmakers’ spending freely because the Constitution lacks a balanced budget requirement. … Gridlock is good for investing, but the stock market tends to do well no matter who is in the White House. Trump’s proposals—representing a radical change from Biden’s policies—are likely to materialize because he won a clean sweep. Today, Dr Ed examines their ramifications for financial markets. In the “cons” column: Trump’s trade policies and expansion of the federal budget deficit. In the “pros” column: his corporate tax cuts and deregulation plans. Also, we think the inflationary impacts of Trump’s policies could be offset by low energy prices. His deportations might be similar in scale to previous administrations’.

The Fed: Neutral Or Bust?

Something’s amiss with Fed Chair Powell’s explanation for lowering the federal fund rate a second time in two months despite an economy he admits is performing remarkably well. He tied the rationale for the move to the theoretical “neutral FFR,” implying that monetary policy needs to be less restrictive to reach that point, even though that point is intrinsically unknowable. Also implied was that the related risks are worth taking—including potentially overheating a strong economy, untethering inflation, and inciting a stock market meltup. Eric and Ed disagree that risking all that for an elusive goal makes sense. … Also: A few more questions they would have liked to put to Powell at his Thursday presser.

Bond Vigilantes Are Fed Up

The bond market seems to be ignoring developments that usually halt rising yields in their track. Investors seem focused instead on the stimulus—both fiscal and monetary—that’s likely coming to an economy that doesn’t need it. The effective result: The bond market is tightening the economy itself. The Bond Vigilantes are back and threatening to take the 10-year Treasury bond yield up to the 5% realm. That ought to give FOMC members pause. … Also: The labor market remains healthy notwithstanding the latest employment report. It offers no good reason for the Fed to ease further at this point.

Valuation In A Resilient Economy

Goldman Sachs’ bold projection that the next 10 years may be a “lost decade” for stocks, with mere 3% annual returns, is unlikely in the extreme, says Dr Ed. It seems to rest on the assumption that valuations in the future will be lower than today’s. Even without expanding valuation multiples, earnings growth would likely boost the S&P 500 price index at a pace that’s at least twice Goldman’s projection, and returns would be more like 11% a year including reinvested dividends. Furthermore, in our Roaring 2020s economic scenario, earnings growth and valuation—and the index’s appreciation potential—would be even greater than that, driven by a technology-led productivity boom.

Life In The Fast Lane

The Fed’s monetary decisions are only as good as the data they’re dependent on. But economic data can be misleading for several reasons. What looks recessionary may simply be a temporary anomaly that gets revised away or followed by strong data the next month. Today, Dr. Ed makes the case that the Fed’s September decision to cut the federal funds rate by 50 basis points was too much, too soon, as subsequent data have shown. If so, inflation could halt its moderating trend and stock market valuations could inflate unduly in a meltup scenario. … Also: The Fed’s estimate of the “neutral” federal funds rate is probably too low.

Happy Second Birthday!

As the bull market turns two, Dr. Ed fondly recollects the performance of the young raging bull. At times, the bull charged and at times stomped its hooves on the ground in reaction to the monetary policy, earnings expectations, and economic outlooks waved in front of it. Yet the bull trampled even our heady expectations this year, passing our year-end S&P 500 forecast ahead of schedule. At the risk of more hoof marks, we’re maintaining our year-end targets of 5800, 6300, and 6800 for 2024-26. They reflect a bullish earnings outlook, which reflects rising profit margins in our Roaring 2020s scenario, hinging on a tech-led productivity boom. We might increase our 30% meltup odds if the bull keeps charging ahead over the remainder of this year.

A Dozen Reasons For None-And-Done

It takes a lot to kill an economic expansion, often a credit crisis during periods of Fed tightening that escalates into a credit crunch and a recession. The latest tightening has ended, and that didn’t happen. Now the latest batch of strong economic data should finally lay to rest the diehard hard-landers’ recession warnings. It should also cast doubt on whether the Fed needed to ease at all on September 18. Ed and Eric think not and predict that the Fed won’t cut the federal funds rate further this year. Dr Ed offers 12 reasons that “none-and-done” would be the Fed’s most prudent and plausible policy path for the remainder of the year.

No Hard Feelings

The permabears have fueled much negativity about the outlooks for the US economy and stock market. Their analyses often don’t hold up to scrutiny. Today, Dr Ed puts the prospects of a recession and a bear market into perspective, historically and in light of recent BEA data releases. The data show the economy to be remarkably resilient, including the goods producing sector. … With a strong economy and no recession in sight, why did the Fed ease last week? Answer: To boost demand for labor and reduce unemployment. But easing won’t rectify a mismatch between the skills employers seek and the skills job seekers offer.

Fed’s Dream Economy Versus Ours

The Fed is starting a new easing cycle to avoid a recession that we don’t see coming, based on concern about labor market deterioration that we don’t see occurring. Today, Dr. Ed compares and contrasts the world according to the Fed with the world according to our team, explaining the thinking behind both. Notably, the Fed is risking its credibility by easing without regard for election results, as both presidential candidates’ policies would raise the federal deficit in a one-party sweep, an inflationary prospect. We are rooting for gridlock. … Also: Three misleading economic indicators continue to stoke recession fears unduly.

50 Basis Points: Baked Or Half Baked?

It’s a foregone conclusion that the Federal Open Market Committee will be launching a new monetary easing cycle by cutting the federal funds rate when it meets this week. But a weighty decision faces the committee: To cut by 50 basis points or not to cut that much? Fifty is the usual amount kicking off an easing cycle, but the economic circumstances are different this time: There’s no recession clearly barreling toward us. Dr. Ed explores the pros and cons of the decision before the committee, concluding that easing by 25 bps would be the wiser course.

Retailers, Markets & AI

The latest batch of labor market indicators has caused a temporary “growth scare,” in our opinion. Concerns that economic growth is slowing have convinced the markets that the Fed will open up the easing spigots and cut the federal funds rate by more than we expect. … Previous peaks in the yield-curve spread suggest that the bond yield is close to bottoming. … There were bright spots in the employment report too: The payroll and household surveys weren’t all that bad.

Someday, There Will Be A Recession

Today, Dr. Ed puts the notion of a recession still to come into perspective. Since 1945, the US economy has been in recession 14% of the time. Most of the nine recessions stemmed from the credit-crunching effects of monetary tightening. The most recent tightening round won’t likely trigger a recession despite the “long and variable lag” often noted before the economy reacts to tightening. That’s because this tightening round is different in many respects, one being the “Immaculate Disinflation” it has achieved (moderating inflation without a recession). For multiple reasons, we think it’s wrong to expect a hard landing still to unfold from this tightening round. … Q3 is shaping up as another immaculate quarter.

Powell’s Latest Pivot Won’t Be His Last

It was an unambiguously dovish Fed Chair Powell who described the Fed’s intentions for US monetary policy at the Jackson Hole gathering of global central bankers on Friday. In our opinion, he was too dovish for this point in the economic cycle. After all, successful execution of the Fed’s dual mandate basically has been achieved: Inflation is headed on autopilot down to the 2.0% target (thanks to solid productivity gains) and unemployment remains low. Why tamper with success? Powell’s pivot to dovishness assured the financial markets that they were right to expect more easing after the widely anticipated September rate cut. But if the labor market remains resilient or inflation reheats, Powell likely will have to pivot again.

Get Ready To Short Bonds?

Last week saw unfounded US recession fears and global financial market jitters go poof as quickly as they arrived. Dr. Ed examines what the markets were overreacting to when they beat a hasty retreat and the subsequent developments that set investors straight. … Weather was the reason for much of the weakness in July’s economic indicators, suggesting that August’s data may surprise on the upside and that Fed officials might push back against expectations of numerous rate cuts ahead. We expect just one 25bps cut in September and no more for the year, especially since a greater cut could trigger another carry-trade unwind. … As for the bond market, we see three possible scenarios and lean toward the mildly bearish one.

No Recession In Earnings Or In Disinverting Yield Curve

Corporate earnings have never been higher, suggesting that employment should continue to grow as profitable companies expand their payrolls. Today, Ed and Eric put the prospect of a recession into perspective with their “Credit Crisis Cycle.” Ed notes that S&P 500 companies’ record-high forward earnings is a bullish indicator for the stock price index. The S&P 500 forward profit margin is near its record high and expected to hit new highs in the productivity growth boom we project, our Roaring 2020s scenario. … Eric explains why this time, a disinverting yield curve is not signaling an imminent recession as it has in the past. Other relied upon recession indicators are flashing false signals as well.

Rolling Into A Recession?

A weak July employment report does not a recession make. The financial markets reacted on Friday as though it does, but we believe that report was a weather-impacted anomaly and not representative of the strength of the US labor market. Eric & Ed make that case today, explaining what was going on behind the scenes to make Friday’s stock market unusually volatile, why we expect employment data to snap back in August, and why we don’t expect a hard landing of the economy. … Furthermore, the latest productivity data are consistent with our Roaring 2020s outlook.

Gold Medals

If economic performance were an Olympic sport, America would sweep up gold medals. The US economy hit record-high real GDP, real consumer spending, and real consumption per household (a barometer for standards of living) last quarter. It has achieved the feat of “immaculate disinflation”—falling inflation without recessionary fallout—as PCED inflation is fast approaching the Fed’s 2.0% target. Real capital spending by businesses also stood at a record high during Q2. The US housing market is the notable exception to the US economy’s remarkable performance, with weak housing starts and residential investment.

Dueling Views

Characterizing the investing backdrop at this juncture are big unknowns about the near-term future, such as which administration will be controlling fiscal policy six months from now and what monetary policy will be at that time. So it’s no wonder that multiple consensus viewpoints seem to be moving financial markets this way and that. Today, Dr. Ed examines what’s been driving the commodities, fixed income, currencies, and equities markets and discusses his takeaways for the economic and financial market outlooks.

Immaculate Disinflation!

In congressional testimony last week, Fed Chair Powell sounded more dovish than he has this tightening cycle. That clinched financial markets’ growing expectation that the Fed would cut the federal funds rate as early as September. We believe so too. Now that inflation is closing in on the Fed’s 2.0% target, Fed officials are increasingly focused on keeping the unemployment rate low. … From today’s vantage point, it’s clear that “immaculate disinflation”—the lowering of inflation without a recession—is possible, as we had predicted back in September 2022.

It’s Still A Bull Market Until Further Notice

Signs that the Fed might lower the federal funds rate soon have sent stocks soaring, even though those signs were weak economic data. So the Fed Put is back. We’re concerned that the Fed might ease too soon, switching its mandate focus from inflation to unemployment. That could be a wrong move given the likelihoods that the soft patch won’t grow into a recession and that trade policies next year are bound to be inflationary. … Our S&P 500 targets might be too conservative if the slow melt-up continues. Then again, the dearth of bears in the market is a contrarian bearish sign. … As for the labor market, we don’t see weakness in the data but normalization.

Inflation Heading Toward Soft Landing

Personal consumption expenditures data for May suggest clear skies on both the inflation and income fronts: The PCED has been gliding steadily earthward and looks on course to reach the Fed’s 2.0% y/y destination for it by year-end. Consumer spending has been showing no sign of retrenchment, and consumption trends jibe with our rosy economic outlook. Moderating inflation with a robust economy argue against the Fed’s easing this year. So do stimulative fiscal policy, low unemployment, and the ramifications of cutting rates on inflation and financial markets. We’re in the small camp that would prefer not to see the federal funds rate lowered this year.

Bull Tramples Even Wall Street’s Bulls

The bull market has stampeded through some of the most optimistic price targets on Wall Street including ours. While we are sticking with our S&P 500 yearend target of 5400, we’re looking forward to the bull run lifting the index to 6000 by yearend 2025 and 6500 by yearend 2026. … Q1 earnings beat expectations causing industry analysts to revise upward their consensus estimates for this year and next. We lay out our forecast for continued revenues and earnings growth during the Roaring 2020s. … The stock market may be in a meltup, so we revisit the 1990s for some guidance. The S&P 500 Information Technology and Communication Services sectors are as large now as they were during the dot-com bubble, but today they generate a larger percentage of the S&P 500’s earnings.

The Phillips Curve Ball

The rates of unemployment and inflation aren’t always inversely correlated, as the Phillips Curve model posits. Historically, they have often been; in recent times, not so much. The problem with the model is that it doesn’t account for the effects of productivity growth on price inflation. … The high rates of goods inflation experienced after the pandemic proved to be transitory, as we had anticipated. Services inflation has been more persistent but is moderating too. Pulling both down are assorted disinflationary forces. … Consumer sentiment fell in early June. We’re not sure why exactly but suggest some possibilities related to inflation, the labor market, and the uninspiring presidential race options.

To Tell The Truth

How the labor market is doing is critical to the Fed’s setting of monetary policy given its dual mandate to steer the economy away from both too-high unemployment and too-high inflation. But gauging how the labor market is doing can be a stumper: Two different employment indicators point in different directions. … Less ambivalent are the indicators of wage inflation: All point to continued moderation. … We believe the labor market has been normalizing to its pre-pandemic state and remains robust. But what the Fed makes of the labor data and may do in response is another stumper. We’d like to see it keep monetary policy as is for now.

Earnings Tales

Our economic and S&P 500 forecasts are underpinned by our forecasts for corporate revenues, earnings, and profit margins. We often compare them to industry analysts’ consensus estimates for S&P 500 companies in aggregate and how they change over time in response to earnings reports. Today, we illustrate this process by showing how data from Q1’s earnings season have fed into our own annual and forward EPS estimates, which multiplied by target forward P/Es produces our S&P 500 targets for year-end 2024, 2025, and 2026 of 5400, 6000, and 6500. Notably, Q1’s reported revenues and earnings edged down from their recent record highs, but analysts’ estimates for the future rose, showing that the quarter’s results were much better than expected.

Will There Be Peace In Our Time?

Geopolitical events can shake up the stock market, sometimes providing buying opportunities. The current geopolitical landscape is unsettled and unsettling, with potentially seismic ramifications on several fronts and lots of uncertainties: Is Putin’s call for negotiations with Ukraine a nonstarter? Is it even real? Are US efforts at brokering peace in the Middle East progressing toward that end or is that notion wishful thinking? Does the heightened pitch of China’s barking at Taiwan indicate a bite is imminent? Will G7 nations’ efforts to insulate their supply chains and economies from the harmful effects of China’s trade policies work? Is the US’s open-border policy a terrorist attack waiting to happen?

Dow 40,000 & Counting

Boomer-led households’ collective net worth has skyrocketed 19-fold since 1990. As the generation has lived long and prospered, so has the stock market (rising 40-fold over their adulthood) and the US economy (with nominal GDP up eightfold since 1982). … Looking ahead, our Roaring 2020s scenario assumes faster-than-average growth for S&P 500 earnings, GDP, and productivity. Faster productivity growth should depress unit labor costs and inflation in a process that began last year. More of the same, as we forecast, should boost profit margins to new record highs. … Also: Just ignore the doomsaying LEI. … And: China’s latest attempt to hoist its economy.

Are Consumers Cracking?

Today, we look at cracks in the story that consumers are cracking. Crack proponents expect consumers to start saving more and spending less because they’ve depleted their excess saving from the pandemic years. We expect personal saving rates to stay low and consumer spending to stay high as Baby Boomers, done with paying college tuitions and mortgage loans, spend their sizable nest eggs. (Many apparently are buying big-ticket items such as light trucks, for cash!) As long as consumers’ purchasing power keeps rising along with employment and real wages, our money is on the consumer. … While consumers remain in good financial shape, inflation has depressed consumer sentiment, particularly at the gas pump.

Almost ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’

Investors in both stock and bond markets are suddenly blooming with optimism. Both markets rallied on Friday’s (mostly) positive employment report, including yet another sub-4.0% jobless rate and despite some negatives in the report. Stoking the optimism, perversely, has been economic news suggesting weakening: Cheery investors have focused not on that but on the potential ramification of it, that interest rates won’t be kept higher for longer after all. Both good and bad news are being met as great news! … One fact that indeed warrants optimism: The Fed’s 2.0% inflation target has been reached by one relevant measure.

Stagflation? Not!

One quarter does not stagflation make. True, the March quarter’s real GDP growth rate was down from the December quarter’s, while inflation was up—a combination that calls to mind “stagflation.” But the current economic scenario is nothing like the stagflationary environment of the late 1970s, when the combination of anemic GDP growth and out-of-control inflation crippled economic activity. … Today, we look at data confirming that economic activity is continuing apace—with consumers consuming, housing recovering, and businesses investing—and that PCED inflation remains on a moderating track, within our target range for the year.

House Of Mirrors

Today, we rant about rent and the housing market. Like a fun house mirror without the fun, several housing-related forces are distorting economic activity. There’s the distortive way rent inflation is measured in the headline CPI; if the BLS’s new All Tenant Rent index were used instead, the Fed would be fighting too-low inflation! … There are the forces messing with supply and demand, depressing the supply of homes for sale (Baby Boomers aren’t moving) and elevating demand for rental units. … Housing affordability has suffered as a result, with home prices up 46% just since the lockdown ended. The good news is that new rental supply is ameliorating rent inflation.

Inflation: The Ugly, The Good & The Bad

As the war in the Middle East escalates, it could send the oil price flying toward $100 per barrel and wipe out our expectations of continued moderation in US inflation (notwithstanding March’s anomalous CPI). … Barring that ugly scenario, our inflation outlook is good, with continued moderation to the Fed’s 2.0% target—which, notably, we wouldn’t view as justifying Fed easing this year. … But there are flies in the ointment: A few pesky elements of the inflation picture aren’t easily subdued, e.g., rent, health insurance, and auto-related costs.

Hooray! The Recession Is Over

There was no recession last year, but the widespread expectation of one depressed certain economic activities, like hiring. With that depressant now lifted, several labor market indicators shot to record highs in March. … Consumer spending has been strong, especially by Baby Boomers and especially on services, keeping demand for service workers robust. Strong employment and wage growth in turn have boosted consumer spending. … Real average hourly earnings has resumed its long-term uptrend after stagnating during the pandemic years. … Also: A look at recent years’ heavy influx of on-the-books foreign-born workers.

The Amazing Flying Machine

The US economy is flying high and should continue to do so. It has defied the past two years’ widespread expectations that it would land hard or fall into recession. In fact, last year’s real GDP growth of 3.1% matched the 48-year average. Fiscal stimulus has helped, but the major engine has been robust consumer spending as Baby Boomers spend their wealth. With consumption per household near its record high, Americans have never been better off. … Corporate America is thriving too, with record cash flow, capital spending, and profits. … Plus, inflation by some measures is at the Fed’s 2% target.

Another Post On Our Post-Modern Monetary Theory

Is the “Fed Put” back? Might the Fed’s assurances that interest rates will be brought down this year (as long as inflation behaves as expected) fuel irrational exuberance among investors? And what if interest rates really don’t need to come down, because the notion that they do rests on a faulty premise—the “long and variable lag” thesis? Our Post-Modern Monetary Theory suggests that monetary tightening doesn’t cause recessions because of a lagged demand-choking response of the economy. Tightening usually causes recessions when it triggers financial crises that turn into credit crunches that bring on recessions. That sequence of events is unlikely now that the Fed knows how to play Whac-A-Mole in the financial markets.

Post-Modern Monetary Theory

Unlike in January, investors’ rate-cut expectations now appear to be in sync with FOMC members’ projections. Both seem to be anticipating two or three 25-basis-point cuts over the coming months. … Whether the apolitical Fed might time its rate cuts with any consideration for election-year politics is unclear, but we list some political considerations that it might be weighing if so. … Also: We explain the theoretical framework we use to forecast the economy. For lots of reasons, we are not proponents of Friedman’s Monetarism or Kelton’s Modern Monetary Theory, favoring instead what we call “Post-Modern Monetary Theory.”

‘Pent-Up Exuberance’

Is Bostic on to something? We think the Atlanta Fed president is right to warn about “pent-up exuberance,” the business community’s readiness to pounce on opportunities en masse the minute interest rates drop. Demand then could surge, triggering resurgent inflation. The Fed should be wary of tripping that wire by lowering interest rates too soon. … Yet Fed Chair Powell sounded ready to ease soon last Thursday. We don’t think the recession threat (of keeping rates higher for longer) is as worrisome as the pent-up exuberance threat (of easing too soon). … Our Roaring 2020s scenario is right on track. Fingers crossed the Fed doesn’t mess with success.

The Elephant (& The Donkey) In The Room

Bouts of geopolitical or domestic political strife usually don’t derail the US stock market. Investors tend to divorce politics from their decision making, counting on wars to end and gridlock to keep regulation-happy lawmakers in check. Only when geopolitical problems disrupt supply chains, trade, and global energy markets or when domestic partisanship prevents the government from functioning do these considerations matter to companies and their investors. We’re closely monitoring these risks and think it’s time for a heads-up: They could cloud our optimistic Roaring 2020s outlook in 2025. … For now, no such concerns are impeding the bull market; it’s currently thriving by multiple measures.

The Roaring 1990s: Déjà Vu All Over Again?

Many of this decade’s economic and financial market trends bear a striking resemblance to those of the 1990s. That was a decade in which a stock market meltup preceded a meltdown (in the early 2000s), so monitoring meltup indicators today is well worthwhile. Now, as then, stock market strength is translating to significant wealth effects that should keep the economy resilient and monetary policy restrictive for longer. Today, we highlight the two periods’ similar economic conditions (comparing the trajectories of real GDP growth, productivity growth, inflation, unemployment, and the federal funds rate) and financial market paths (bond yields, the stock market).

Earnings Bullseye, More Bullish Targets & More On Meltups

Today, we analyze the analysts, noting that they tend be influenced by stock market meltups—thus fueling the meltups—and during meltups tend to raise their long-term earnings growth rates unrealistically high. Nevertheless, we explain why we follow their forward earnings, revenues, and profit margin projections closely. We also give our projections for the S&P 500 companies’ operating earnings, revenues, profit margins, as well as the index’s the forward P/E and our S&P 500 price targets now through 2026, when we expect the S&P 500 price index to reach 6500.

Why Were Economists So Wrong?

High inflation rarely has been tamed without precipitating a recession. Few economic prognosticators thought it could be done. Yet the Fed has steered inflation down toward its 2.0% target while allowing the US economy to fly, avoiding a hard landing. Today, we look at the projections of economists who expected a hard landing of the economy and why their trusty models and indicators failed them.

Productivity Is Roaring Back

The pandemic distorted the economy in many ways, including derailing the productivity boom that we’d been expecting would characterize this decade—our Roaring 2020s scenario. That boom now may be back on track; productivity growth was well above the historical average during the past three quarters. If so, the ramifications for economic growth would be profound, as GDP growth is a function of labor force growth plus productivity growth. … We track the impact of productivity growth by monitoring inflation-adjusted wages, unemployment, unit labor costs, and price inflation rates. … Also: Productivity seems to be on the mind of Fed Chair Powell.

Fairy Tales Can Come True

It doesn’t take a recession to bring down inflation to the Fed’s target! “Immaculate disinflation,” widely dismissed as a fairy tale, has come true. In fact, the current economic picture is enchanting, with GDP growth remaining robust, inflation moderating, unemployment remaining low, and consumer spending holding up even as pandemic-era saving depletes. The fairy dust that’s enabled this ideal economy: productivity growth, three quarters strong and counting. … Fed Chair Powell now faces the high-stakes decision of when to lower the federal funds rate. Too soon risks stimulating asset bubbles. Too late risks overly restrictive real interest rates now that inflation is down.

Let’s Party Like It’s 1999!

Now that investors’ recession fears have abated, they’re focusing on company fundamentals again, so good corporate news is having a stronger bullish impact. Additionally, investors are excited about the potential of AI and the prospect of Fed easing. The possible result: an exuberant meltup phase, which might already be under way and might become irrational. … Unless Fed Chair Powell stresses that he’s in no rush to ease, a speculative bubble could inflate, funded by money moving from interest-paying vehicles into stocks and bonds. … Also: The economy is nearly as good as it gets. Unemployment, inflation, and gas prices are down; consumer sentiment and retail sales are up.

Powell’s Inflation Nightmare

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 risk of resurgent energy inflation. … Globally, inflation has been dropping, with China’s economic woes effectively working to export deflation to the rest of the world. But war in the Middle East could jeopardize that scenario if it disrupts oil supplies.

The True Story About Long & Variable Lags

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 result when tightening rounds cause credit crunches, not when they merely tamp down demand, and that credit-crunch precipitated recessions descend quickly, not with lags. … Also: Recent unemployment stats support rising consumer spending, in our view.

A Dozen Reasons To Be Bearish In 2024 (Not!)

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 a dozen reasons to be bullish in 2024. This first one of the new year provides a dozen reasons not to be bearish. … Also: Dr. Ed reviews “Maestro” (+ +).