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Inside Economics welcomes back Mark Calabria, the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. We discuss the current housing affordability crisis and what policymakers should do to address it, the FHFA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the risks posed by nonbank mortgage companies. The group also takes up the role of the Federal Home Loan Banks. Plenty of debate, and even some agreement.

Mark, Marisa, and Cris take a deep dive into current housing market trends. They consider the demand and supply drivers that are depressing existing home sales and pushing homebuyers towards new construction. Along the way, the team deconstructs mortgage rates and provides its best estimate of the nation's housing deficit. Mark challenges Marisa and Cris to come up with solutions to the housing crisis and wonders if we'll ever experience another sharp increase in foreclosures.

The Inside Economics team is joined by CPI guru and colleague Matt Colyar to discuss the bevy of inflation-related data released this week. First the team dissects the Federal Reserve’s CCAR stress test scenarios and laments the perpetually inconvenient timing of their release. Talk turns to the root causes for the inflation of the past few years and why shelter inflation is so stubborn. The team imagines themselves on the FOMC for a day and what they would do with interest rates going forward.

Bill Adams, Chief Economist of Dallas-based Comerica bank, joins the Inside Economics team to assess the economic outlook and consider a range of economic issues from consumer credit to China’s prospects. We also learned what he is most anxious about, and it isn’t the outcome of the Super Bowl.

Dante joins the podcast to break down the January employment report. Fitting for Groundhog’s Day, the jobs report delivered an eerily similar upside surprise to what we saw in January 2023. Following the January meeting of the FOMC this week, the team discusses what the Fed is likely to do in light of recent data.

The Inside Economics team revels in the great economic numbers of the past week. The economy not only avoided a recession in 2023, but it ended the year enjoying robust GDP growth and tame inflation. But there are threats at the start of the new year, including a potential seizing up of the all-important Treasury bond market. Samim Ghamami of the SEC joins the podcast to discuss this threat, its causes and implications, and potential reforms to ensure it doesn’t upend financial markets and the economy.

Robert Dietz, Chief Economist of the National Association of Home Builders, joins Mark Zandi, Marisa DiNatale, and Cristian deRitis to discuss the outlook for mortgage rates, home sales, and construction activity. The team delves into the immigration and demographic trends affecting housing demand along with the 5 L's (Laws, Labor, Land, Lending, and Lumber) limiting homebuilding today. Rob's quoting of Tolstoy catches everyone off guard while the wide-ranging discussion made it difficult for the team to come up with a clever podcast title so we took a cue from Friends.

In this wide-ranging podcast, we tackle the CPI inflation report, the mounting threat posed by cyberattacks on the financial system and broader economy, and the regulatory response. Jill Cetina and Lesley Ritter of Moody’s Investor Service and Joe Lyons of BitSight join us with their insights. And we finally learn how to pronounce Matt’s last name.

This week’s podcast focuses on the jobs report for December. The usual cast of characters discusses the job catch-up (not ketchup) in government and healthcare, and its implications. Everyone agreed that despite the considerable cross-currents in the numbers, it was a good report.

John Toohig, head of wholesale trading for Raymond James makes a return appearance on Inside Economics. He last joined us in the wake of the banking crisis this past March, and made the case that the banking system while bowed would not break. He was right. Join us to hear what John is now saying about the system, loan growth and quality, and what it all means for the Fed and economy.

In the last podcast before the holidays, Inside Economics chats with Carl Tannenbaum, Chief Economist of Northern Trust about the economy, financial system, Fed and forecasting. The group took as a good omen that they had a Tannenbaum and a DiNatale on the podcast just before Christmas (you may need to Google the names). Not that they attribute their forecasting process to the use of such signs.

The U.S. economy surprised to the upside in 2023 as consumers shrugged off a number of headwinds. With inflation abating and the Federal Reserve facing less pressure to hike interest rates, recession risks are fading. But they can’t be fully discounted given high interest rates, geopolitical turmoil, declining savings, and political uncertainty. Slower growth with somewhat higher unemployment is the most likely outcome. Call it a slowcession.