Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: economy

Season 2, Episode 8: Assessing Economic Damage From Coronavirus Crisis and Plotting A Way Forward

Published March 17, 2020

With Political Economist Marc Chandler

Marc Chandler, a political economist and currently managing partner at Bannockburn Global Forex, joins the podcast to provide his assessment of the coronavirus impact on the global economy.

Segment time stamps:

  • This crisis is different, not brought about by the economic cycle but by an exogenous shock (3:15)
  • Assessing the fiscal and monetary response by policymakers (4:36)
  • Will there be a “V-shaped” recovery? (6:55)
  • Recovery in Q3, Q4, but growth will be limited (12:07)
  • The crisis may accelerate the move to a cashless society (13:12)
  • Background on the guest (17:43)
  • What’s something the market is missing? (27:39)
  • The Age of Surplus (34:13)
  • Greater accountability for the Federal Reserve (38:21)
  • The crisis could result in expansion to enfranchisement. To 16-year olds? (43:21)

Highlights From Our YouTube Channel

For more information on the guest:

Not intended as investment advice.

Leave a Comment

Season 2, Episode 7: Oil Sell-Off Special Edition

Published March 10, 2020

Inside The Saudi-Russia Supply Standoff, With Kirill Zadov, Political Analyst, RUSA Radio

Kirill Zadov, political analyst at Russian-language radio station RUSA Radio, joins the podcast in this special episode to discuss the recent sell-off in oil prices.

Zadov has some unique insights into the Russian oil economy and the political economy of the Middle East. His prediction: Saudi Arabia and Russia will have to come together to agree to output cuts, and soon. How low will oil go in the interim? Here too Zadov has some views.

Segment time stamps:

  • What’s motivating Russia on their decision to not cut output? (4:02)
  • Why Russia and Saudi Arabia need to cut output, and soon (7:07)
  • What other countries in the region are affected by this? (9:19)
  • How long will it take for Russia and Saudi Arabia to agree to cuts? (10:28)
  • Background on the guest (11:35)
  • How low will oil prices go? (13:26)

For more information on the guest: 

Not intended as investment advice.

Leave a Comment

Contrarian Calls, Revisited: Barry Knapp on Yield Curve Inversion

Published February 5, 2020

What Was Said

In this podcast’s pilot episode last April, economist Barry Knapp of Ironsides Macroeconomics discussed the economic news of the day: the 3-month/10-year yield curve inversion.

The conventional wisdom at the time was that the yield curve inversion would lead to recession in the U.S.

But there had been numerous “false positives” from the yield-curve indicator in the past, Knapp said: 1966, 1998, and 2005. “There was no evidence that the inversion of the yield curve was really having any demand side effects on the actual availability of credit,” he said at the time. “It’s not debilitating for growth.”

The U.S. consumer remained healthy as households continued to delever from the excesses of the 2008 financial crisis. “The savings rate is high, income growth is picking up,” Knapp said. While global exports were slowing, this was “not enough of a shock to drive the U.S. into a recession.”

Additionally, there were reasons to believe the inversion wouldn’t last long. The Federal Reserve was indicating that its next Treasury-buying initiatives were more likely to lead to a steepening of the curve.

Knapp was bullish on bank stocks, having upgraded his view in 2017. He also liked U.S. small caps, expecting a rally on domestic demand.

What Happened

Ten months later, there are no signs of recession for the U.S. economy. Financial stocks have done well, judging by the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE), which is up more than 14% in the intervening months:

Small caps have also done well, with the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) gaining more than 11%:

The 3 month/10 year yield curve stayed inverted for a few months before steepening. It has since inverted again, though this time few economists are calling for a recession.

Leave a Comment