Do you feel like we’re in a recession? Well, the facts show us otherwise.

In this episode, Ryan Detrick & Sonu Varghese talk about the current state of the economy, focusing on the importance of hard data in understanding economic trends. They discuss the strong economic data and retail sales, highlighting the significant increase in retail sales over the past three months. Ryan and Sonu also touch on how investment spending benefits productivity, the contrasting views between Leading Economic Indicators and consumer opinions, and the relationship between bonds and the stock market’s performance.

Ryan and Sonu discuss: 

• Recent strong economic data in retail sales and auto production and why the economy is stronger than we thought
• The positive impact strong industrial production has had on the economy 
• Why auto production has been soaring even more than it was pre-pandemic 
• The impact investment spending has on productivity 
• The contrasting views between the Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) and other economic indicators, such as PMIs and consumer sentiment
• The relationship between bond yields and stock market performance
• The importance of teaching children about investing and financial literacy
• And more!

Resources:

• Talking Macro with Neil Dutta (Ep. 47)
• Sonu’s Daily Note about auto/industrial production?
• Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey
• Jackson Hole Economic Symposium
• Ned Davis Research

Connect with Ryan Detrick: 

• LinkedIn: Ryan Detrick

Connect with Sonu Varghese: 

• LinkedIn: Sonu Varghese