Shutdown Risks and a Fed Decision: Markets on Alert

Congress moves unexpectedly back into the economic picture, as talk of a partial government shutdown on Friday has re-emerged with power and possibility. If investors thought that the only news hitting them this week would be just another boring Federal Reserve meeting, the fight over Department of Homeland Security funding should spice things up nicely. […]
Rethinking ‘Data‑Driven’: Why Friedman’s Long‑View Philosophy Matters Again

Slightly more than a week before a critical Federal Reserve interest rate meeting, the outlook on prices has been muddied once again by uncertainty over tariffs. Potential fiscal policy actions involving credit card rate caps, oil price manipulation, or home buyer subsidies have also been disruptive. The best way for monetary policy authorities to think […]
Inflation, Housing, and Fed Speeches: A Pivotal Week Ahead

Having hopefully shaken off the always-lethargic start to the new year, investors will be bombarded by data this week, some of it still questionable in quality. For example, the usefulness of Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index numbers for October, delayed because of the government shut-down, is not even being discounted — it’s largely […]
Jeanette Garretty on Bloomberg Radio

November 27, 2023 – Chief Economist and Managing Director, Jeanette Garretty appeared on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia to discuss U.S. eco data/preview Fed. “I just want to highlight, I think it’s going to be an interesting meeting and I think there’s going to be a lot of dissent behind closed doors. Not when they make the […]
Jeanette Garretty on Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia

July 12, 2023 – Chief Economist and Managing Director, Jeanette Garretty appeared on Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia discussing the outlook for the US economy as the inflation rate slid to a more than two-year low. “I think most of those trends, one of the things that makes this a good report is that when you look […]
Dow futures slump as election results tighten
MarketWatch by Joy Wiltermuth on November 4, 2020 Jeanette Garretty discusses the economic outlook in the midst of election returns. Garretty believes there is still uncertainty of the outcome, and investor focus will go back to the economy and the pandemic. “There seemed to be an expectation that there might be a blue wave,” said […]
Economic Outlook at Midyear
As seen in the WealthManagement 2020 MidYear Outlook Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist, August 2020 Three enormously expensive and challenging projects confront the United States and the major developed economies in the next 18 months: 1) the repair and support of fragile economies and an ageing labor force, 2) the rebuilding of supply chains for strength […]
Investing for Future Growth
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist July 21, 2020 – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regularly prepares long-term economic growth forecasts in order to fulfill its mandate to analyze the budgetary impact of current and proposed federal legislation. These forecasts utilize generally accepted or consensus projections of population growth, demographic trends, labor force participation rates, productivity, […]
The Value of Simplicity
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist July 6, 2020 – Every soul-shaking event of the last twenty years – 9-11, the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the coronavirus pandemic – has been accompanied by a period of introspection regarding truly important things in our lives. The answers understandably are different for each individual, but there are often […]
Plain Speaking Powell
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist June 16, 2020 – At a recent Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Associates Meeting, the distinguished Stanford economics professor and monetarist John Taylor described Fed Chairman Jerome Powell as “speaking his mind.” It is a characterization that comes up time-and-again, always as a compliment; the most powerful central banker […]
Consumer Confidence
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist June 11, 2020 – Consumer spending is 70% of the US economy, as measured by US GDP, and the frequent repetition of this mantra by popular financial media, academics and Wall Street analysts alike is testimony to the sheer power of the fact. While economic sectors with smaller shares of […]
A Note About Employment and Unemployment
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist June 10, 2020 – The most recent report on US labor market conditions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released on June 5 and reporting on employment and unemployment in May 2020, has provoked a torrent of commentary on the accuracy of the survey data. In this particular case, […]