"If it weren't for Trump's trade wars and a dearth of business investment, the economy would be in excellent shape. As it is, growth continues along the moderate 2% path that it has followed for more than 10 years. It's been the weakest recovery ever, but also the longest business cycle expansion. And with no obvious excesses or systemic problems in view, it promises to continue.
The Q3/19 GDP report—1.9% annualized growth—makes the current expansion the longest on record. ...To be sure, 2% growth isn't a barn-burner, but it's impressive given the degree to which the manufacturing sector has been hit by Trump's tariff wars.
Since the recovery started just over 10 years ago, annualized GDP growth has been 2.3%; in the past year it was 2.0%, and in the most recent quarter 1.9%. ...for most of this past year the market has been expecting growth to slow, and indeed it has. That is reflected in the more than 100 bps decline in the real yield on 5-yr TIPS since late last year. At today's real yield of a mere 0.05%, 5-yr TIPS appear to be priced to the expectation that real GDP growth will average about 2% per year going forward. Not surprisingly, Chairman Powell recently chimed in with a similar view, saying the FOMC expects moderate growth of about 2%."
(The weakest recovery and longest expansion dated 11/01/2019 by Scott Grannis, Chief Economist at Western Asset Management from 1979-2007)
Full article can be read here: http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-weakest-recovery-and-longest.html