WH saying no recession & Sec Yellen saying it’s a “transition” reminds us of Carter admin economist Alfred Kahn who, when forbidden to mention “recession,” used the word “banana” instead. Banana growers protested, so he switched to “kumquat.” What's the fruit for recession today?
This recession could end up being among the shortest on record. While hard to believe, this is because – after economic activity has plunged so deeply – even a slow, partial opening up of the economy could begin to lift economic activity off those extreme lows.
A recession’s severity is measured by its depth, diffusion and duration. Here’s why we believe that this recession will be extremely deep, very broad, but relatively brief.
This is the third straight quarter of negative yoy GDI growth.
This has never happened away from recession.
#GDI
is often overlooked because it’s released one month later, but is just as valid as
#GDP
. More here:
Solid headline jobs growth. But the household survey shows yoy full-time jobs growth falling to a 3-year low, while part-time jobs growth soars to a 2¾-year high.
#Jobs
#JobsReport
WH saying no recession & Sec Yellen saying it’s a “transition” reminds us of Carter admin economist Alfred Kahn who, when forbidden to mention “recession,” used the word “banana” instead. Banana growers protested, so he switched to “kumquat.” What's the fruit for recession today?
It's getting harder to dismiss the plunge in semiconductor demand, which we flagged back in March, in the context of our earlier global industrial slowdown forecast. That downturn isn’t over. I’ll be discussing our outlook next week at SIC 2019:
Companies are routinely blindsided by cyclical changes in the direction of growth that aren’t really Black Swan events.
We have a different perspective.
Watch our full
@RealVision
interview here:
Remember when people were proclaiming "the death of macro?" We now know how that worked out.
Bottom line, post-GFC, we've seen 10%+ declines in S&P only during growth rate cycle downturns. We called the current one last year -- and it's not over.
Last week’s sub-50 services PMI “shocker” sealed the deal on recession for most. ECRI clients saw this sector-specific insight months ago – and it’s not over yet.
“You skate to where the puck is going, not where it is.”
1/ “The policy mistake odds are pretty high … If you look back at recessions, they tend to happen in the vicinity of the Fed goofing up and oil prices being high. All these things are on our radar screen.”
"ECRI relies on early warning signals that catch turning points long before they are evident to laymen. As they say in ice-hockey, you skate to where the puck is going, not where it is."
Suddenly everyone’s a recession expert. But most don’t know what a recession is, let alone correctly predicted one.
In sharp contrast, our decades-long real-time track record is unrivaled.
Benchmark revisions show sharply slower jobs growth since 2018, in line with ECRI’s earlier cyclical slowdown call (benchmark revisions for past 10 months will be available in a year).
A good looking jobs report, as yoy growth in education & health jobs rose to a 38-month high. The more cyclical component of nonfarm jobs growth – excluding those jobs – remains in a clear downswing, virtually unchanged from October’s 99-month low.
GDP gets all the attention, but GDI is at least as reliable.
What many don’t know is that GDPplus – which includes both measures – can be a better recession indicator than either.
Go beyond the headlines:
ECRI research cuts through the subjectivity about soft landings.
Green dots = soft landings
Red dots = hard landings
Yellow dot = current cycle
Get chart deck and hear our explanation on
@MacroVoices
podcast:
Against the backdrop of the deepest recession in living memory, there’s widespread bafflement about the rally in equities. But there’s a perfectly rational explanation for the divergence. Bottom line, it makes perfect sense for stocks to have turned up in March.
Private services jobs growth (yoy) clearly slowing since January. It hasn’t been this weak in the past 8 years, apart from August and a few months in 2017-18.
While most think the labor market is solid, it is hollowing out in a recessionary manner.
Take a look at these unmistakable indicators:👀
#Jobs
#Recession
Oblivious of the economy’s current cyclical resilience, the Fed cut rates today, depleting the precious ammo it will need when recession truly threatens. Watch and read more here:
Our work shows that if you want to manage equity market risk, it’s important to understand that major corrections are linked to growth rate cycle downturns in the economy.
Sharing the details here:
De-globalization has been happening for much of this decade, as its roots run much deeper than the trade war. So, while a resolution to trade disputes would be welcome, de-globalization will continue.
#G20
A Solid Uptick: In two months we lost more than double the percentage of jobs lost in 2008-10, and nearly half the percentage lost in 1929-33 – before regaining more than one in nine of those lost jobs.
After years of flooding the global economy with liquidity, the
#Fed
is leading a global QE pullback, even with global growth in a cyclical slowdown.
#ECRI
2/ “I think the sooner the market acknowledges this slowdown is more than Omicron, the better. The longer that fantasy persists, the riskier it gets.”
More in Feb 4
@GrantsPub
Interest Rate Observer
Today’s update shows Weekly Leading Index (WLI) growth falling again.
The WLI helps confirm earlier moves in our longer leading indexes.
Watch ECRI's recent public comments:
#BusinessCycle
#ECRI
It's easy to get caught up in bullish takes and head fakes, but this chart shows an undeniable pattern around recessions.
What do the 1973-75, 1980, 2001, and 2007-09 recessions all have in common?
More here:
Today’s update of ECRI's U.S. Weekly Leading Index shows its growth rate dropping to a 122-week low.
Watch our latest public comments:
#businesscycle
#ECRI
Two straight down quarters of GDP are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for recession. That said, over the last 75 years a recession has always occurred when this has happened. Details here:
Needs vs. wants:
Private non-farm job growth ex education & health is only 51K, of which 33K or so comes from auto strikes ending.
See the choices being made:
#Jobs
#Employment
2/ Fortunately, free of the models used by the 400 PhD economists employed by the Fed, we do have the necessary foresight.
Our research prompted us to conclude 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘨𝘰 that “U.S. inflation pressures are now in an unambiguous cyclical upswing.”
The Fed and Wall Street project future inflation by extrapolating recent trends. While effective at times, this approach overlooks the fact that inflation is cyclical.
Explore ECRInsights:
#Inflation
#Fed
Rough ISM services print, and Atlanta Fed Q1 GDP estimate now at 0.0%. If this is the long-awaited post-Covid "bounce," the Fed is in more trouble than they think.
The Fed has picked its poison by tightening into this ongoing US growth rate cycle downturn.
Listen/download the deck for our current public outlook, a recession history lesson, and a classic ECRI chart on market corrections and GRC downturns.