When Fiscal and Monetary Policy Collide

This Macroeconomic Outlook sector report is excerpted from the Second Quarter 2018 Fixed-Income Outlook.

Seasonal adjustment challenges and winter weather appear to have taken a toll on U.S. economic data in the first quarter, as seen in previous years. Nevertheless, the outlook for near-term economic growth has brightened due to the spending bill that was passed by Congress in February. With significant federal spending increases and tax cuts in the pipeline, the economy will grow well above potential in 2018 and 2019. The good news is that this will support corporate earnings in the near term. The bad news is that this is how business cycles end.

The problem is that above-potential economic growth drives above-potential job creation, which will push the unemployment rate further below its sustainable rate. Payroll growth has averaged 211,000 over the last six months and 188,000 over the last year, roughly double the rate that would be necessary to maintain a stable unemployment rate given U.S. demographics. We expect the unemployment rate to fall to 3.5 percent or lower—a full percentage point or more below its estimated natural rate—before the cycle ends.

With a tighter labor market comes faster wage and price inflation. Inflation has rebounded from last year’s slump, with the Fed’s preferred core inflation measure having accelerated from 0.9 percent in August to 2.3 percent in March on a six-month annualized basis. Twelve-month inflation numbers turned higher in March as last year’s decline in wireless services prices provided a favorable base effect, bring core inflation to 1.9 percent, essentially at target.

With lawmakers doubling down on fiscal stimulus at a time when the labor market is already beyond full employment, the Fed will need to tighten monetary policy further. We expect the Fed to deliver three more rate hikes in 2018 and another four in 2019 as it attempts to engineer a soft landing. However, history suggests that its odds of success are low. We continue to forecast that a recession will begin around early 2020, when a fading fiscal impulse collides with tight monetary policy and an overextended economy.

The combination of rate hikes and supply congestion in the front end of the yield curve underpins our expectation for further bear flattening. Three-month Libor will bear the brunt of Fed tightening, owing to the combined effect of a higher fed funds rate and declining excess reserves as the Fed’s balance sheet shrinks. We maintain an up-in-quality bias, as the Fed’s determination to avoid overheating will ultimately spell trouble for credit markets.

—Brian Smedley, Head of Macroeconomic and Investment Research; Maria Giraldo, CFA, Managing Director; Matt Bush, CFA, CBE, Director

Important Notices and Disclosures

This article is distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investing advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. It contains opinions of the authors but not necessarily those of Guggenheim Partners or its subsidiaries. The authors’ opinions are subject to change without notice. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but are not assured as to accuracy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Investing involves risk. In general, the value of fixed-income securities fall when interest rates rise. High-yield securities present more liquidity and credit risk than investment grade bonds and may be subject to greater volatility. Asset-backed securities, including mortgage-backed securities, may have structures that make their reaction to interest rates and other factors difficult to predict, making their prices volatile and they are subject to liquidity risk. Investments in floating rate senior secured syndicated bank loans and other floating rate securities involve special types of risks, including credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk and prepayment risk. Guggenheim Investments represents the following affiliated investment management businesses of Guggenheim Partners, LLC: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC, Security Investors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC, Guggenheim Real Estate, LLC, GS GAMMA Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Partners Europe Limited, and Guggenheim Partners India Management. ©2018, Guggenheim Partners, LLC. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission of Guggenheim Partners, LLC.

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