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Tag: recession

Season 2, Episode 10: Coronavirus Crisis Continues, Expect ‘Rolling’ Recessions

Published March 23, 2020

With Rachel Ziemba, Geo-Economic and Country Risk Expert

Rachel Ziemba joins the podcast to discuss the continuing, and intensifying economic impact from the coronavirus.

It’s become clear that the crisis has caused a demand shock that will likely bring “rolling recessions” in its wake. The most likely scenario appears to be for a “W-shaped” recovery. In the meantime, there is still a lot that go wrong.

Content Segments

  • The demand shock, shift in demand, and rolling recessions (4:27)
  • Unique characteristics of the coronavirus crisis (7:57)
  • Oil and oil-producing countries may be at most risk. Sino-U.S. relations can be expected to suffer (16:35)
  • Background on the guest (25:55)
  • Discussion of historical parallels: some similarities, but there is no precedent (30:16)
  • The unlikely prospect of a “V-shaped” recovery (36:26)
  • How deep might the trough be? (39:55)
  • Are there any safe harbors from this? (47:57)

Highlights From Our YouTube Channel

For more information on the guest:

Not intended as investment advice.

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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.

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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.

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