Current Perspectives
2023 Outlook: A Recession Year (December 21, 2022)
by Mark Keller, CFA, Bill O’Grady, and Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF Summary of Expectations: A recession is highly probable in 2023. Our base case is a garden-variety recession. Three factors could trigger a deep recession: a. Falling nominal home prices; b. A financial crisis; c. A geopolitical event One factor that could mitigate the downturn… Read More »
2022 Outlook: Update #2 – The Tails Become Fatter (July 12, 2022)
by Bill O’Grady, Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA, and Mark Keller, CFA | PDF In our 2022 Outlook: The Year of Fat Tails, we outlined a forecast with a higher likelihood of events outside the norm. To compensate for the unusual level of uncertainty, we promised to provide frequent updates to the forecast. This report is the… Read More »
2022 Outlook: Update #1 (February 18, 2022)
by Mark Keller, CFA, Bill O’Grady, and Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF In our 2022 Outlook: The Year of Fat Tails, we outlined a forecast with a higher likelihood of events outside the norm. To compensate for the unusual level of uncertainty, we promised to provide frequent updates to the forecast. This report is the… Read More »
2022 Outlook: The Year of Fat Tails (December 16, 2021)
by Mark Keller, CFA, Bill O’Grady, and Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF Summary: We don’t expect a recession in 2022. Real GDP growth will range between 3.0% to 3.5%. Inflation remains elevated, though price pressures will likely subside in H2 2022. We expect the core PCE deflator, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, to… Read More »
2021 Outlook: The Recovery Year (December 14, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady & Mark Keller | PDF Summary: The economy is in recovery, but the expansion phase of the cycle (where economic output exceeds its prior peak) isn’t likely to begin until 2022. We look for weak first quarter growth followed by more notable strength for the remaining three quarters as the COVID-19 vaccines… Read More »
The Case for Small Caps (December 7, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady, Mark Keller, and Dan Winter | PDF To measure market capitalization, we use the Wilshire Large Cap and Wilshire Small Cap indices. The following chart shows the log-transformed ratio. On this chart, a rising number indicates stronger large caps relative to small caps. In general, small caps tend to outperform coming out… Read More »
The Case for Hard Assets: An Update (September 2020)
by Bill O’Grady & Mark Keller | PDF Background and Summary In this report, we use the term “commodities” to imply “hard assets.” In our definition, the latter is a commodity that requires multiple years to generate a supply response. This definition excludes agricultural commodities, which tend to create a supply response on an annual… Read More »
2020 Outlook Update #2: Storm Warning (March 27, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady & Mark Keller | PDF We have been updating our 2020 Outlook to keep you informed of our thoughts as conditions evolve. We have refreshed some of the charts from our update last week and added new comments, included below in bold. Update #2: March 27, 2020 | Update #1: March 16,… Read More »
2020 Outlook Update: Storm Warning (March 16, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady & Mark Keller | PDF Summary—High Probability of Recession: The economy is facing three simultaneous problems: A public health crisis—COVID-19 and the economic impact of containing it; An oil price war and a regional economic slump; Rapidly rising financial stress caused by (a) and (b) along with underlying unresolved issues. We estimate… Read More »