00:00Lots of money
00:01Oh, but that's okay
00:02I am with you
00:03With you
00:04Oh, man
00:05Your boy Kevin just lost lots of money
00:06Oh, that's okay
00:08I am with you
00:09Here we go
00:10Come on
00:12Push it
00:13Buy the dip
00:14Find the dip
00:15Here we go
00:15Come on
00:16Push it
00:17Buy the dip
00:18Buy the dip
00:19Here we go
00:20Come on
00:20Push it
00:21Buy the dip
00:22Buy the dip
00:23Here we go
00:23Come on
00:25Push it
00:26Oh my God
00:27What's happening? First of all, all this whining by Wall Street, it's making me sick
00:28140% of GameStop was short
00:32GameStop was short
00:33Short
00:34You can't allow Wall Street to short 75% of a stock
00:36Crush these companies into the dirt, thousands of stocks into the dirt
00:40Then, when the individual makes money, everyone's entrepreneurs
00:44I have a kid who bought a house, paid $50,000, and bought a..
00:49After decades of shorts, you have to accept the fact that individual investors are playing the same game that you're playing, and now you're losing
00:51Here we go
00:53Come on
00:55Push it
00:57Find the dip
00:58Find the dip
00:59Here we go
01:01Come on
01:02Push it
01:02Find the dip
01:03Find the dip
01:04Here we go
01:05Come on
01:05Push it
01:06Find the dip
01:07Find the dip
01:08Here we go
01:08Come on
01:09Push it
01:10Oh my God
01:11What's happening? Here we go
01:12Come on
01:13Push it
01:13Find the dip
01:14Find the dip
01:15Here we go
01:16Come on
01:17Push it
01:17Push it
01:18Push it
01:19Find the dip
01:19Here we go
01:20Come on
01:20Push it
01:21Find the dip
01:22Find the dip
01:23Here we go
01:23Come on
01:25Push it
01:26Oh my God
01:28What's happening? There's a lot of power in organizations online
01:29Three million people can get together in a subreddit
01:31I think it's really..
01:32Funny that the K-pop stock is going up and just affects the market in that way
01:36There's 28,000 people live in a Discord who are spamming rocket emojis, yelling "go to the moon." You know what's really funny is that now this rocket emoji has actually become a regulatory issue for the financial regulatory authority, FINRA
01:55They’re telling people not to use rockets in their financial briefings or any kind of communication
02:04It's gone that far
02:05So, for example, if you're a financial adviser or whatever, you can't use the rocket emojis in your tweets or posts
02:15It's incredible—it's gotten quite serious, with regulators trying to crack down on emojis now
02:18How wild is that? The world that we've gotten to, like how far this world has come, and it's pretty remarkable
02:26But what's also kind of remarkable is that today is Fed Chair Jerome Powell's day, which is quite interesting because, you know, there's a lot of hope that Jerome Powell is going to give us a, you know, a sweet blessing that everything is good to go
02:46And honestly, I think he's going to deliver that there is no recession
02:54I think he's going to deliver on this idea that the economy is totally fine, and when he gets asked about the Atlanta Fed real GDP numbers and stuff, he'll refer to how gold imports artificially influence this substantially to the negative
03:09It's actually a really positive, 0.4%
03:11In that, the economy really isn't suffering that badly
03:16But then again, we have this jaded outlook that J.P.AL could never tell us the truth because if he did, he would just crash the economy
03:22So, we have a little bit of a balancing act to do
03:27And, in about 13 minutes, we're going to get the summary of economic projections, which will be fun, because what we're really going to be looking for is what the differences are between this summary of economic projections and the last one that we had
03:45Now, why that matters is because we think—first of all, we didn't get one in January
03:49The last summary of economic projections that we got was December 18th, and markets were not very happy after December 18th
03:53Markets sold off
03:57Off after this
04:01So, if we look at it sort of with a fresh lens here, let's go to this screen
04:04If we look at it with a fresh lens, what we really get is, uh, or, or what we're really going to be focused on is the Fed's projections on GDP
04:16Do they think we're going to fall below 2%? Notice here in their December projections, they were thinking, "Hey, GDP is going to be fine
04:28It'll be 2.1% in 2025." But honestly, there might be an element of tone deafness if they don't revise this down
04:37So the question then becomes, how much are they going to revise this down? That's a little unclear right now
04:45I wouldn't be surprised if they try to show us some kind of V-shape here, right? Where they..
04:49show a decline
04:53In fact, I'll write down sort of my guess, right? We'll do that in just a moment here
04:57But, uh, it's possible that they try to show us maybe some sort of hiccup or decline as they price in some of this earlier Trumpian data and then suggest, hey, you know, the tariff drama should be transitory
05:11Now, boy, that would be one heck of a word that most of us don't want to hear again
05:15Uh, but it's going to, unfortunately, have to be something we pay attention to
05:19Uh, so let's take a peek
05:22If we suggest, let's use a different editor here
05:25Let's go with
05:29There we go
05:32Uh, so, uh, my guess, uh, the Fed shows a dip in 2025 due to transitory tariffs
05:36Uh, if— I mean, there's a real risk factor, though, of them using this word
05:40Uh, let's Let's put it this way
05:44If they use the word "transitory," I think they'll get clowned
05:48If they actually say "transitory," they'll probably get roasted
05:55So expect different wording that means the same thing, right? So you're looking at a one-time impact from tariffs, just referencing tariffs, or they might just say nothing
06:08The less guidance they give us, in my opinion, the more uncertain they are
06:14The more uncertain they are
06:19This is some crazy little editing software that wants to do funny things with text
06:25Okay, yeah
06:28So the idea with this is simply that the Federal Reserve is looked at for guidance, but I think they really want to pretend that..
06:36They don't have to hold this meeting right now because tariffs have really been pulling forward a lot of demand, and this creates problems
06:44Tariffs pull forward massive demand; they make the economy look strong now
06:51But how much are we borrowing from the uncertain future, and the problem with this is we're not going to know the answer to that until probably mid-June or mid-July
07:06We'll have more real tariff data following the April 2nd imposition, though maybe that gets delayed again
07:18And so, how is the Fed really going to give us any guidance here when they don't know what Trump is going to do? So it's likely that we're just going to get a snapshot
07:32So, like my expectation, my take, because of..
07:34You know, I'll say, uh, thanks to, um, Trump's, uh, sort of style of negotiating
07:50I would argue the Fed's going to give us, I expect, very little guidance today, and a lot of things are good right now
08:02Uh, if things change, we'll respond
08:06Personally, I think if Powell could take a meeting and skip a meeting, I think he'd skip this one
08:11Uh, so I'm going to write that
08:14If Powell had a skip-one-meeting card to play, I think this would be it
08:20He really has nothing new to give us
08:26The data is what it is
08:29They're going to respond to it the way they are, and that's it
08:30This summary of economic projections, usually Powell downplays it, so that's something else to remember
08:39Usually Powell downplays the SEP
08:41Now, in this..
08:44Morning's Alpha Report
08:46I actually thought from a trading point of view, so for those of you who are traders, okay, I think IMO the S&P drops the market and Powell talks it up
08:52That's my take
08:59You know, I'm making this assumption at, uh, 10:53 a.m
09:03California time
09:08No guarantees, obviously, but that's what we discussed in the Alpha Report this morning
09:12The rationale behind that is I think the Fed is going to try to show us a V-shaped decline, likely in GDP
09:20We are seeing a little bit more talk of layoffs, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an uptick in unemployment in 2025 and 2026
09:30I would estimate GDP for 2025—let's call it Kevin's guess—median 2025 GDP, 1.8%
09:37Kevin's guess, median
09:442025 unemployment
09:52I'm going to go with, uh, probably they'll probably go with something like 4.6 or something like that, you know, to account for some of the government layoffs and otherwise
10:03But I wouldn't be surprised if then in 2026, uh, this goes back up and they basically go right back to 2%
10:09And for the unemployment rate, they basically leave their 2026 forecast unchanged as well
10:14So this is sort of like a Fed forecasting a V-shaped adjustment from tariffs, right? This would be a V-shaped, uh, tariff adjustment
10:27Now, if the Federal Reserve gives us something worse, then maybe they're seeing something that's not good, right? If worse, the Fed may be seeing something bad in their, uh, talks and research because..
10:36That's what the Fed does
10:46The Fed is primarily a research institution that investigates what businesses and consumers are doing in the economy
10:55So, this will be really interesting
10:57By the way, you'll notice if you're on the YouTube chat, there are people with these blue names and everything
11:03We just did something really cool
11:06Those are all course members, and we just tested this because I think it could be a bad idea—because I think it's too good of a deal
11:17But I don't think you've ever seen something like this before
11:18Are you ready for this? We introduced a Meet Kevin membership today
11:25Basically, we just created it, and you get all of the courses
11:28For like, I think it's less than $2 a day or something like that
11:32I know it says it at the bottom
11:33You can go to it
11:37Yeah
11:40A buck 63 a day
11:43You get real estate analysis, the Alpha Report, the course member live streams, course member meetups, the Wealth Plan, Trumpomics, all of the courses
11:47Now, it's a recurring subscription, and this price is not going to stay this low for that long
11:54So, there's no opportunity to buy once, but it's what a lot of people have been asking for
12:00They've been looking for something where they could pay more over time on a monthly basis
12:04And so, we did that
12:07That's live now at MeetKevin.com
12:09If you want to check that out, you get a lot of the benefits, and then you can..
12:12Cancel at any time, too
12:14So if you want to give the courses a try, you could do that, which is really cool
12:16Uh, anyway, so let's go back to this Fed profile because we're about to see the moves here on the NASDAQ, uh, and we're about to see the release of the Summary of Economic Projections, which is really fascinating
12:38Uh, testing the wrench
12:40What's up, Phipe? You got the wrench, and Dylan, worth it
12:43Let's go, meat stick
12:45You know, doing a payment plan for folks is actually the opposite of needing cash, right? Like if we're like, "Oh my gosh, we need cash," it's trying to get as much money as possible
12:54This is such a low barrier for people to try out the courses, get the Alpha Report, get the live..
12:58Streams
13:01I mean, it's like a buck a day, a buck sixty or whatever it was a day
13:03That's a pretty good deal for folks
13:05And you could try it for 30 days
13:07And if you don't like it, just don't renew
13:15You know, give it a 30-day shot
13:22Uh, which is really exciting, and it's going to create a lot of benefits for new and existing members as well, because, you know, basically, you got to keep providing more content for folks in the courses so they want to stay subscribed, right? Uh, and so I think it's a win-win for everyone
13:30I'm really excited about it
13:31But anyway, going back to this, the most important categories that we're going to be looking at in the summary of economic projections are, right? Here
13:39I actually don't think that inflation is that big of a critical item that we're going to be paying attention to because I'm of the mindset, and I could be wrong, but I'm of the mindset that we're probably more likely to see deflation or disinflation substantially than we're likely to see hyperinflation or, you know, whatever
14:03So, we'll see
14:06This will come out in 2 minutes, and it's very, very exciting
14:08Max says, "The Meet Kevin membership is not butter." Let's go
14:11Guns and butter
14:14Ella, Ellis, did you get your reply? I saw your email
14:15It was around 6:00 a.m
14:18this morning
14:21There are a ton of House Hack emails at IRHouseHack.com, so you will get an answer today if you haven't yet, but I'm going to make sure you're..
14:23Good
14:24Uh, so we, we, we appreciate you
14:26You're here almost every day and the course member live streams as well
14:29So, the answer to your email is yes
14:31Uh, you just haven't gotten that response yet, so stay tuned
14:34Or I don't think you have yet
14:36Maybe the team's already sent it to you
14:39[Music] Miguel here says nothing
14:40Powell coming
14:42Well, yeah, I mean, probably, honestly
14:45I mean, like, come on
14:48What’s he supposed to say? Dive the economy into recession? We're all here ready to listen to Powell tell us everything is okay
14:55Uh, you know, like, okay, we've had some tariff uncertainties
15:00Okay, we had some gold imports that screwed up the Atlanta Fed GDP, which is a really sensitive barometer anyway
15:08Like, look, I..
15:16I'm a bear, but I'm telling you, this should not be bearish, right? Uh, like even when the Atlanta Fed numbers came out, I was like, "No, it's not that bad." And I'm a bear saying it's not that bad
15:25So, uh, yeah, I mean, but that's my goal always, which is trying to give you realistic perspectives
15:30Like, you know, it's so easy to see the economy falling off a cliff when you look at the Atlanta Fed numbers
15:36We need to break this down
15:38Or it's like, you know, Tesla gets its robotaxi permit
15:41It's like, no, it didn't
15:44This is great for Tesla; they got a taxi permit to transport their own employees around, but come on, man
15:48This is not a robotaxi permit
15:50This is entirely different
15:51So, you know, I always try to..
15:53Like provide the realistic perspectives
15:54All right
15:57Uh, anyway, with that said, uh, we're about to get our numbers, so be prepared
16:02And then I'm going to pull up the statement the moment I can uh get my hands on that statement
16:06And remember, if you want to check out that Meet Kevin membership, it's at meetkevin.com
16:08Okay, here we go
16:10It should be splashing over my screen in just a moment
16:12Oh my Lord
16:14Okay, there it is
16:16Fed policy makers see a 4.4% unemployment rate versus 4.3%
16:18Tiny increase, 1.7% on GDP for 2025, I guess 1.8%
16:22That's lower GDP than I expected, uh, but that's okay because let me see what they say for 2026
16:25Uh, longer run
16:28I'm going to actually get the dock up over here
16:31But, uh, the FOMC statement is out
16:33Hold on
16:35Let's get here while I
16:37Pull this up
16:39On both sides of its mandate in a move that we will be debating, it removed the statement saying that risks to its dual mandate are roughly in balance
16:46That came out of the statement this time
16:47On the Fed's projections, it boosted core inflation to 2.8% for 2025 from 2.5%
16:55So, 2.8%, by the way, exactly mirroring the CNBC Fed survey
17:02It kept 2026 at 2.2% and the same for 2027 at 2%
17:06Suggesting the Fed either thinks it will control inflation through its policy or..
17:08Yeah, yeah, yeah
17:11Yeah
17:13Let's just get to the actual numbers right here
17:14Okay
17:15Here it is
17:16So, this here it is
17:182025
17:19So, remember I guessed 1.8% and then they would go to 2%
17:21We got 1.8%
17:25Oh, they wrote everything down
17:26We got 1.7% and then 1.8%
17:28They wrote every year down
17:29Oh, that's interesting
17:31Look at that
17:32They went from 21, I thought, to 18
17:34They went to 17
17:35Then they went from 20 and 1N down to 18
17:37They wrote down all of those years
17:40So GDP did get revised down, probably as a signal for the tariffs
17:45But look at this—a tiny increase in the unemployment rate
17:50They only went from 4.3% to 4.4% right here
17:54Nominal increase here
17:58Uh, and actually, I mean, we could just look at the number underneath it, right? Because this shows us the difference
18:03We don't have to click around
18:04Uh, and PCE inflation a smidgen higher
18:06This is not a big deal
18:09Fed funds rate projection
18:11They didn't change their projections at all
18:13So still pricing in two cuts
18:16No change in the projections here
18:19Not a huge surprise
18:21Let me see some of the other notes we've got here
18:24We have Fed policy—okay, we see that
18:27We see that
18:31Let's see from the statement: the redemption cap will decline to 5 billion from 25 billion of monthly redemptions on mortgage-backed securities
18:34Sorry, mortgage-backed securities are unchanged
18:36The Treasury is going from 25 billion to 5 billion
18:38In other words, they are slowing the runoff
18:42Everyone voted for this except for Governor Waller, who didn't want the runoff to change
18:49So, a little less of a runoff
18:53Let's see here
18:56Okay, then we have the rate forecast, which didn't change at all
19:00A Fed projection implies 50 basis points of cuts
19:03This is what we expected
19:05We thought they would give us two
19:07Markets were..
19:08Expecting three
19:10I'm like, uh-uh, it ain't going to happen
19:12Uh, they're going to end up giving us two
19:14Uh, and, uh, and sure enough, that's, uh, that's what happened
19:17Uh, so now it's going to come down to Fed Powell's commentary
19:23Where do we think we're going to go in the way of commentary? Now, my take on this is we're going to get a Powell
19:30I mean, honestly, this none of this is that bad
19:32I was actually, frankly, expecting a little bit more of a hit on unemployment, as you saw on my last sheet
19:38You know, in my last sheet, which I'll show you right here, the projection I made was I would expect a V-shaped decline in GDP and an uptick in unemployment, but we didn't get that
19:51We actually got steady unemployment change
19:53No rate changes
19:54That's okay
19:56We weren't expecting that
19:57Uh, and basically, they shaved a little bit
20:00They shaved like 10% off the GDP numbers, right? Instead of 2%, it's now, uh, you know, 1.8%
20:04So basically, exactly 10% shaved off the GDP numbers
20:08Uh, big deal
20:11All right, not a big deal at all
20:14Uh, so I find that very interesting
20:16Now, uh, what is really going to happen now is we've got to evaluate whether this really changes anything for the markets
20:24My take on this is no
20:28Uh, today is somewhat of a day to get Powell over with and move on
20:33Uh, now we'll look, we'll look at just a moment
20:36Let's go ahead and see how the Qs are reacting
20:40Uh, honestly, somewhat flat, probably just because we're waiting for Powell
20:44Wowee, not a..
20:47Big deal
20:50Kind of normal, but you actually didn't get that much of a shock from the markets here
20:53I thought markets would have been a little bit more upset that the Fed only priced in two cuts
20:59We did think they were only going to price in two cuts, but then again, markets still think the Fed is going to go for three cuts
21:05So, there's a little bit of discrepancy there
21:09But honestly, there's not much to report on the statement
21:14This is pretty straightforward
21:15Now, if Jay Powell comes up and basically just says, "Hey, everything's fine," the summary of economic projections is a nothing burger, and I'm happy about that because the last thing we really need right now is more uncertainty
21:31Like for us over at House Hack, just so you know, in case you haven't heard an update on House Hack, a quick update: we're just going to hoard cash and go buy a bunch of single-family homes in Q3 and Q4
21:40Again, we already have $60 million in real estate, another $6 million in the bank, and our non-accredited round is open
21:46Um, spoiler, I haven't really publicly announced that, but my point is to relate it to the Fed and say, you know, we're kind of just like snipers
21:56We're just waiting
21:58Like, all right, our rates are going to go down in Q4 because then we'll refinance
22:02I mean, we have no bank debt, so we could take on a bunch of bank debt and go buy deals, or we'll just start sniping
22:06Like foreclosures or whatever, and then provide quality homes for people after we renovate them
22:10It's really interesting
22:12That said, uh, you know, nobody knows
22:16I mean, there's a lot of buy-the-dip enthusiasm right now in markets
22:19Institutions are walking away, walking back from markets a little bit
22:24Fund manager pessimism is at highs we haven't seen since COVID
22:29You've got pessimism at highs at hedge funds, but retail is buying the dip like crazy
22:34So retail, by the way, is not supposed to be an insult
22:36It's supposed to be a way of saying, like you and me, like everyday folks, not a fund manager, right? And so, this, you know, us normal folks, we're like, ah, whatever, you know, things are on sale
22:41I mean, look at— Facebook
22:46People loved it at 700
22:52If you love it at 700, you should absolutely be all over yourself at 577
22:57The problem that I see is, you know, we haven't really gone through a 2001 slow 10-year no-return season yet
23:08So, everybody's still kind of used to making money quickly in the stock market
23:11Um, and the Fed isn't really telling us that we shouldn't expect that, right? The Fed, this Fed sheet, this Fed sheet reiterates, "buy the dip," right? I mean, think about what the Fed is doing
23:26They're vacuuming up less liquidity, which is a little bit of an unspoken way of easing, right? Vacuuming up less liquidity
23:39Liquidity via smaller amounts of bond runoff sales is a form of stimulus, right? So, you're kind of..
23:53Stimulating the market by taking less stimulus out
23:55Is that a weird way to phrase that? That might be a weird way to phrase that
24:00Let me rephrase that a little bit better
24:02So, let's say, you know, markets, uh, for example
24:09Okay
24:15Uh, markets have $1,000 to spend each month, and JPA, uh, you know, JPA forces you to spend $100 each month on his garbage
24:22Okay
24:28His, you know, bonds, right? Uh, now, uh, now he's forcing you to, I’ll make the numbers more exact, $250 each month on his garbage
24:35Now he's forcing you to buy just $50 of his garbage
24:39That gives you more buying power
24:45That's a really rudimentary way of trying to explain what I'm saying with a sort of like reverse stimulus
24:52They're basically sucking up
24:54Less money
24:55Okay, it's that simple
24:58Which is interesting
25:01So, if they're sucking up less money, it technically provides more liquidity for markets
25:04But we are seeing no credit stress right now
25:08So, technically, we should have ample liquidity in markets
25:13The problem is, it's usually some black swan event that removes liquidity and credit rapidly
25:24It comes on hard and fast
25:27And this is, I think, what everybody's looking at the Fed for
25:31We're looking at the Fed for some kind of guidance, like, hey, are we missing something? Is it okay to buy the dip? And really, at least from this summary of economic projections, I don't buy it
25:44I don't believe it, but..
25:48From a neutral point of view versus my opinion, this is a good projection set
25:53Let's look at some of the ranges here for a moment
25:55So, the ranges that we got, you can see there's a bear here
25:57Look at this
26:00There is a bear on the committee
26:02See how last time you had somebody suggest a low of 1.8% on GDP? That just went down to 0.5%
26:11So, there's a bear on the committee
26:14Now, that's not really low
26:16And nobody seems to think the unemployment rate is going to go above 4.5%
26:18Now, that to me is ludicrous
26:21Like, why no one sees unemployment—I'll write UI for unemployment insurance—as a concern
26:26It just my thing
26:31Why nobody sees unemployment going up concerns me
26:36It feels like they're somewhat blind
26:37Oh, sorry
26:38Hold on
26:40The..
26:41Range
26:42I should be on range
26:43I thought I was on range
26:44My apologies
26:46I was on central tendency
26:48My fault
26:50This is why, when I like to do fundamental analysis, I like to highlight the heading
26:53I know that sounds stupid, but we do
26:55We humans are not computers
26:58We do stupid things
27:01Here it is
27:03Honestly, still very low—47 on the unemployment rate
27:07Very, very, very, very low
27:09But look at this bear
27:11Look at this bear
27:12There's a bear
27:14Look at this
27:17This is the range
27:21Somebody actually thinks GDP is going to go down to 0.6% without the unemployment rate going higher than 4.7%
27:28Think about what that means
27:34Someone sees GDP dropping to half a percent for two years, yet unemployment is magically going to stay under 5%
27:38Okay, I don't know
27:41That seems weird to me
27:43Let's go look at the dots
27:45You know, we'll be able to see this a little bit better with the dots
27:47So, the dots are basically summarized here
27:50These are the dots of the Fed's interest rate trajectory
27:51I want to see this in terms of real GDP
27:55See, we have here a bear
27:57Look at that
27:59It's like it's one person
28:00Is it one or two? I'm pretty sure this is one
28:02Hold on, this is how we're going to do this
28:04Ready? We'll draw a line from the two
28:06Yeah, one person
28:10One person is a big, dirty bear
28:13Big, dirty bear here
28:17And they weren't here, uh, the last time, if I recall correctly
28:18Let's find out
28:20We have the sheet
28:22I purposefully got that sheet up
28:24See? Ah, that's half a bear
28:27They weren't as dirty yet
28:29Not as dirty
28:32So, there's one
28:35The person on this committee is like, things are about to go to crap
28:38And then you've got this bull over here at 2.4
28:41There's still a 24 bull
28:44So the bull didn't get more bullish, but the bear went dirty too
28:50That's this is knocking on the door of recession
28:52There's a recession bear, one sole recession bear
28:57I mean, I know it's positive GDP, but if the Fed is telling you 6%, it's going to be way worse than that
29:07Uh uh, that's not something actually to laugh about
29:10I'm laughing about the fact that there's one sole version of them versus this idea that, you know, there's like a recession is good
29:18No, a recession is very, very painful
29:20Now, JPAL speaks in about 17 minutes, and right now it looks like things are moving very, very cautiously
29:24Nicely in markets
29:28So, if you look here, we've got Meta's almost green again
29:31This is on the one-minute chart, so really nice movement since the statement
29:35Nice movement up here on the Qs
29:37Okay, I want you to watch this level right here where we are at the Qs
29:40This is a potential breakout level
29:42We have a line for it; you want to watch it
29:44Okay, we've got Tesla
29:48Tesla really needs to close above 230 today
29:51It's an important level to watch
29:53Don't go under 230
29:56Losing 230 is an invitation to go to 220
29:59We talk about this almost daily in the Alpha Report
30:02If you're not getting the Alpha Report, remember, we now have a membership with all eight courses, every trade alert, every private live stream, and the Alpha Report
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30:13Uh, it's a membership subscription, but it makes it really accessible and you can get everything
30:20Try it for 30 days, watch everything in 30 days, and then cancel the subscription
30:22Doesn't matter to me
30:23I want you to have this accessible
30:25And I know a lot of people out there today are like, "Hey, we need something more accessible." So there you go
30:32But anyway, uh, Nvidia, by the way, I'm going through GTC right now, like, amazing in terms of what they're doing, but that's really a topic for a different video
30:43And I'll give you sort of my opinions and where my mindset is because I do have a little bit of insight
30:48I'll give you a spoiler alert on a little bit of my Nvidia insight—uh, you know, half of the..
30:52People get mad at me for using the average candles
30:54Half don't
30:57When you're just a quick spoiler, when you're trading, you generally don't want to use the average
31:00You know, I mean, you could average down to two minutes if you want—some people do that
31:05But when you're doing a more broad presentation on what's going on, these are much simpler to look at to see a broad trend
31:13 But, one spoiler alert is this idea that people are plowing into energy investments because of Trump
31:19I think that's a big mistake, mostly because you should look up negative energy costs in Europe
31:27Remember, I'm all about providing you with more value from a different perspective you may not have heard of before, but we are so..
31:32Overbuilding energy infrastructure, in my opinion, makes it quite likely that we're going to see negative energy costs, especially during the peak solar periods of the day
31:44But when that energy gets captured by more inexpensive batteries, your total cost of electricity goes down over time, not up
31:51Everybody thinks it’s going to skyrocket, but chips become more efficient as people overbuild electricity
31:55It’s actually the opposite that happens
31:59Energy costs are going to come down
32:01So, don’t sign a power purchase agreement
32:01It’s a scam
32:04I actually have a video from about four years ago, or maybe even more, like five or six years old, called 'Solar Scams.' This is a good one
32:11Uh, and pretty green right now in markets
32:14Honestly, I don't think JPL can mess this up
32:16Oh, some of you, by the way, have been asking me about HIMS
32:20I talked about this in the course member livestream
32:22By the way, we do that every morning at market open
32:25So if you want the market open live streams as well, you get that with that membership
32:28But I found this, and look at this
32:31If you're into HIMS, full-page ad from them on why they should have access to the GLPs
32:38Now, if you've ever done research on the GLP product or HIMS, you should know they make a whole lot of money off the subscription service here
32:51Like, I think the average customer pays about $30 a month, but if you're on one of these plans, you pay around $200 a month
32:56So, they're pissed, and I think..
33:01Running a full-page ad on, like, page eight of the front, in the main section of the New York Times, is a little bit of a sign that they're pissed that they lost that income stream
33:09So, something to pay attention to
33:11Okay
33:12Uh, Q's now breaking out above my 479 line
33:15It's a gray line, so it's not that fantastic
33:19A much stronger line is my 476 line
33:21You'll see that here
33:24We've kind of been riding that line today
33:26We bounced off it a few times today
33:28If we go mega bullish, 484s, you know, potentially in the cards, but this really depends on Powell not messing up
33:33Don't mess up, JPOW
33:38All right
33:43Uh, let's do a side-by-side now of the statement, and I want to see what Nick T is saying, and then what..
33:49We're going to do is we're going to get into the actual press conference of Powell, so we'll be covering that in detail
33:59Here's the statement: all right
34:03Uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased
34:07So they've gotten rid of this idea about balanced risks to unemployment and inflation
34:16But, you know, they didn't like— they’re telling us uncertainty has increased, but let's be real: they didn't indicate a serious or meaningful increase in the level of the unemployment rate, which I think is a drastic mistake
34:33There's only one person who's doing it at the Fed
34:37There's only one hawk, as we said
34:39And this hawk, I think, is possible
34:45There are a couple of explanations here
34:50We don't..
34:56I don't know who this bear is, but it's possible they're in a district getting hit harder, right? Who knows? Maybe they're like Washington, D.C., and maybe they're just getting hit a little bit harder than everyone else
34:59But this is odd
35:02We have not seen this sort of dissension yet
35:06And then I would guess that this is actually on the bullish side
35:10The bullish side here is probably Waller, who voted against taper reduction
35:19That's my guess—just a guess
35:22It's not necessarily certain
35:25Okay, good
35:28Let's see here
35:32Jose says the subscription is the best deal ever if you care about the courses more than live streams, which is probably what’s more valuable
35:40I mean, the live streams are pretty dang valuable as well
35:41But that's an interesting point
35:43Because what you're basically saying is, like, hey, you know, you've got a great deal in terms of access, and then you could try the lives and see how you like them
35:47Uh, okay, good
35:50So, let's see here
35:52Just watching your comments as well
35:54Okay
35:57Nobody knows Fed Bingo like Kevin
36:01Small problem: I uh, I kind of screwed up in terms of uh, not being prepared with my iPad
36:04So, we're going to rig this on a computer because what is Fed Day without Fed Bingo? So, do me a favor and give me, uh, give me your, uh, your favorite comments here from Fed Bingo
36:18Uh, what I think we're going to do is we're going to do our usual here
36:24Uh, Powell on time
36:28Uh, dude, I, I would..
36:32if he says like, if, okay, I'm going to pretend like..
36:36I'm running this meeting
36:39Okay, so I'm going to pretend I'm Jay Powell, and we're going to call it like Kevin's column
36:42Okay, Kevin's column
36:46All right, this is going to be—I’m not going to use his words or try to imitate his voice or whatever
36:49That's just corny
36:51I'm just trying to give you what I think he's going to say
36:52So I think what he's going to say is that tariff negotiations have increased uncertainty
37:00We will respond as appropriate
37:02Right now, everything is fine
37:13Picture SpongeBob—right now, everything is fine—and they'll respond as appropriate
37:16There are, you know, we don't see layoffs yet or signs of them coming
37:27I mean, this is them being blind, okay? Like Amazon's
37:33Laying off thousands of middle management workers to increase their EPS
37:37You've got, I don't want to go through the list, but a lot of companies are laying off workers
37:41It will whatever, it'll come up in the data
37:46Okay, so tariff negotiation increases uncertainty
37:49The Fed will respond as appropriate
37:51Right now, everything is fine
37:54The economy is in good shape
37:57So I'll write that the economy is in good shape
38:00You know, we're going to take this, we don't see layoffs coming
38:02We're going to go meeting by meeting and evaluate the data
38:08Oh, and also, I need to put a note here—well, over here we're going to look at the Atlanta Fed's skewed data due to gold imports
38:17You know, we don't see it as that dire, so those are some of the points
38:22Kevin, initial thoughts that I have over here— we could kind of do like the fun column, and we could argue
38:28Uh, can I cheat? I can't tell
38:31I was going to say, is Nick T next to—I don't, you know, I can't tell because I don't think he is
38:37I think I see the back of Nick T's head, but I couldn't see if the blondie from The New York Times was there, so it doesn't look like she's next to him
38:45So that's— that sucks, that just kind of gave away that test
38:48But that's okay, we'll do something else
38:50So, let's do some other fun ones
38:52Uh, I'm going to go with—um, JPAL, JPAL laptop, you know, like a Windows laptop
39:00And, uh, I'm going to assume—I'm going to say he gives no guidance
39:05No guidance on— I'm going to say, we have not discussed the next..
39:09Uh, not yet cut
39:12Okay
39:16Uh, this sounds reasonable
39:20I would like to see some commentary on why there was one bear in the sheet, but I don't think we're going to get it
39:26Uh, okay, let's go
39:28I'm going to go with the purple tie
39:29I see somebody says blue tie
39:31I don't see that happening
39:32Uh, let's see here
39:34You know, this is like I feel like this is really going to be rare
39:41So, I'm going to take the negative on this, beats around the transitory bush
39:47Uh, avoiding the word but means the same thing
39:50Okay
39:53About tariffs
39:56About tariffs
39:59So basically, he tries to call tariffs transitory but doesn't say that it's data-dependent
40:01Hell yeah
40:04Let's go, put that one in there
40:06Data-dependent
40:08Um, the blonde was my favorite part of Bingo
40:09Uh, wait, she's not there
40:14Anymore
40:19What? Oh, did she get fired by uh, [Music] Trump? Uh, consumer spending is rolling
40:24Like, I'm going to assume he'll probably say something about the lower-end, lower-end consumer suffering, but uh, higher-end doing fine, and what he'll do about this lower end is he'll refer to how important it is to get inflation down
40:46Uh, I think that's likely what he'll do
40:50He'll sort of just reiterate his goal here
40:52Uh, I said it was a difference between a blue and a purple tie, a color
40:57Uh, let's see
41:00The Fed voter will probably be asked about in the Q&A
41:03I don't know if the reporters are going to find it, but maybe they will
41:07Uh, so let's write it down
41:09I'll go with it
41:11A reporter asks about the Fed
41:14About the..
41:16Bear, the dirty bear in the Q&A
41:19I like that
41:21Higher for longer
41:24Yeah, we could throw that down — higher for longer
41:26If this data continues, if data continues on this course
41:29Five minutes to go till Powell time
41:37JPAL, I like these
41:39JPA asked to repeat the question
41:44JP abruptly says something like "not my job" or "no," some kind of cutoff or interruption of some sort
41:52That's always entertaining
42:00Okay, what else do we need to put up here? Terrace, transitory
42:09Yeah, no kidding
42:14F your calls
42:19Did she really go to Brussels? Really? Is she doing EU work? Is that true? She's not part of The New York Times anymore
42:22No way
42:25All right, we've got to fact-check that one
42:29I don't want to hear this fake news
42:31Jenna
42:33Smileyak
42:35Uh, okay
42:37LinkedIn
42:39Oh, I have to sign in for this garbage
42:42This is why LinkedIn sucks
42:43Sorry
42:45A lot of people use LinkedIn
42:47Like I probably just offended like 90% of people in here
42:48Sorry
42:50Uh, what is this? Smileyak Brussels bureau chief
42:54Oh, come on
42:58What is this now? She's still at The New York Times, but now she's the bureau chief
43:03You know, the only thing you go to Brussels for are muscles
43:06Okay
43:07Those are really good in Brussels
43:09That's not a diss
43:10That's a compliment
43:11Brussels is awesome
43:12Anyway, interesting
43:15All right, left the Fed
43:16Weird
43:17All right, come on
43:19We got like six more slots to put in here
43:20I need to I need to know about this bear
43:23So, I agree with you
43:25A reporter asked about the dirty bear
43:26Uh oh
43:28Um, Jerome Powell
43:30Says no recession
43:33I think he's going to do this because he's trying to self-fulfill it
43:36You know, it could be bullshit
43:38And we haven't discussed rate cuts yet
43:41What about, um, oh, what else do we have here? The dual mandate, I like that one
43:49Okay
43:56And, uh, why did they remove the balanced risk assessment? It avoids suggesting that labor markets could roll over
44:04I think he'll instead suggest that inflation is ticking up, not trending the way they want
44:18A lot of that is because of tariffs, and if they misread that, they'll probably push us into a recession
44:23But this is what the Fed is good for—they're good at screwing things up
44:26So, I completely agree
44:29Avoid the unemployment rate
44:31Talk
44:32Jobs data strong
44:34Yep
44:35Uh, the labor market is healthy
44:37How about that? Okay, we got to make America healthy again, right? And then, uh, let's see, uh, QT, QT full wrap-up midyear, you know
44:52All right, there
44:56That's going to be our game plan
44:59So, we have—we have our—oh, yeah
45:01And then, of course, Powell on time
45:04Bonus starts with "Good afternoon." I think this is such a given, but it's going to be fun
45:15And if he says something else, I’m going to be blown away
45:18But anyway, this begins in just about a minute
45:22This is pretty exciting
45:25Uh, markets, by the way, did not really have a heart attack at that, uh, at that rate cut
45:29So, this will be interesting
45:32We'll see how this goes at the two-rate cut discussion
45:35So, you know, hopefully Powell just..
45:39Kicks the can down the road here
45:41So, we'll see what goes on with Fed Bingo
45:42This is fun
45:44Uh, remember folks, I might not keep this open very long because I think it's too good of a deal, but we're doing a Meet Kevin membership now for less than a buck seventy a day
45:52Uh, you could join, cancel within 30 days if you want
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46:03You get everything
46:08Course member meetups, uh, the Wealth Plan, uh, the Alpha Reports, you name it
46:10It's awesome
46:13Check it out at meetkevin.com
46:15Here we go
46:17Good afternoon
46:21Hey, my colleagues and I remain squarely focused on achieving our dual mandate goals of maximum
46:26Employment and stable prices are for the benefit of the American people
46:31The economy is strong overall and has made significant progress toward our goals over the past two years
46:38Labor market conditions are solid, and inflation has moved closer to our 2% longer-run goal, though it remains somewhat elevated
46:46In support of our goals today, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged
46:53We also made the technical decision to slow the pace of decline in the size of our balance sheet
46:58I'll have more to say about these decisions after briefly reviewing economic developments
47:02Economic activity continued to expand at a solid pace in the fourth quarter of last year, with GDP rising at 2.3%
47:12Recent indications, however, point to a moderation in consumer spending following the rapid growth seen over the second half of 2024
47:20Surveys of households and businesses point to heightened uncertainty about the economic outlook
47:26It remains to be seen how these developments might affect future spending and investment
47:32In our summary of economic projections, the median participant projects GDP to rise 1.7% this year, somewhat lower than projected in December, and to rise a bit below 2% over the next two years
47:46In the labor market, conditions remain solid
47:51Payroll job gains averaged 200,000 per month over the past three months
47:54The unemployment rate, at 4.1%, remains low and has held in a narrow range
48:00For the past year, the jobs-to-workers gap has held steady for several months
48:07Wages are growing faster than inflation and at a more sustainable pace than earlier in the pandemic recovery
48:13Overall, a wide set of indicators suggests that conditions in the labor market are broadly imbalanced
48:20The labor market is not a source of significant inflationary pressures
48:24The median projection for the unemployment rate in the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) is 4.4% at the end of this year and 4.3% over the next two years
48:35Inflation has eased significantly over the past two years, but remains somewhat elevated relative to our 2% longer-run goal
48:44Estimates based on the consumer price index and other data indicate that total PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) prices rose 2.5% over the..
48:52Twelve months ending in February, and excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 2.8%
48:57Some near-term measures of inflation expectations have recently moved up
49:04We see this in both market and survey-based measures, and survey respondents—both consumers and businesses—are mentioning tariffs as a driving factor
49:14Beyond the next year or so, however, most measures of longer-term expectations remain consistent with our 2% inflation goal
49:23The median projection in the S&P for total PCE inflation is 2.7% this year and 2.2% next year, a little higher than projected in December
49:33In 2027, the median projection is at our 2% objective
49:38Our monetary policy actions are guided by our dual..
49:44mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people
49:48At today's meeting, the committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4 and 1/4 to 4 and 1/2 percent
49:54Looking ahead, the new administration is in the process of implementing significant policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation
50:07It is the net effect of these policy changes that will matter for the economy and for the path of monetary policy
50:14While there have been recent developments in some of these areas, especially trade policy, uncertainty around the changes and their effects on the economic outlook is high
50:22As we parse the incoming information, we're… Focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves
50:29As we say in our statement, in considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the committee will assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks
50:41We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance, and we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity
50:49In our Summary of Economic Projections, FOMC participants wrote down their individual assessments of an appropriate path for the federal funds rate based on what each participant judges to be the most likely scenario going forward
51:03Tell me about the bear
51:04An admittedly challenging exercise at this time in light of considerable..
51:06Uncertainty
51:09The median participant projects that the appropriate level of the federal funds rate will be 3.9% at the end of this year and 3.4% at the end of next year, unchanged from December
51:20While these individual forecasts are always subject to uncertainty, as I noted, uncertainty today is unusually elevated
51:27And of course, these projections are not a committee plan or a decision
51:31Policy is not on a preset course
51:34As the economy evolves, we will adjust our policy stance in a manner that best promotes our maximum employment and price stability goals
51:42If the economy remains strong and inflation does not continue to move sustainably toward 2%, we can maintain policy restraint for longer
51:50If the labor market If inflation were to weaken unexpectedly or fall more quickly than anticipated, we can ease policy accordingly
51:56Our current policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate
52:05At today's meeting, we also decided to slow the pace of decline in our balance sheet
52:12Since we began balance sheet runoff, our securities holdings have declined by more than $2 trillion
52:16While market indicators continue to suggest that the quantity of reserves remains abundant, we have seen some signs of increased tightness in money markets
52:27Beginning in April, the monthly cap on Treasury redemptions will be lowered from 25 billion to 5 billion
52:32Consistent with the committee's intention to hold primarily Treasury securities in the longer run, we are leaving the cap on agency securities unchanged
52:41This action has no implications for our intended stance of monetary policy and should not affect the size of our balance sheet over the medium term
52:51The committee also continued its discussions as part of our five-year review of our monetary policy framework
52:56At this meeting, we focused on labor market dynamics and our maximum employment goal
53:02As we have indicated, our review will include outreach and public events involving a wide range of parties, including Fed listens events around the country and a research conference in May
53:13Throughout this We will be open to new ideas and critical feedback, and we will take on board lessons from the last five years in determining our findings
53:21We intend to wrap up the review by late summer
53:24The Fed has been assigned two goals for monetary policy: maximum employment and stable prices
53:31We remain committed to supporting maximum employment, bringing inflation sustainably to our 2% goal, and keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored
53:39Okay
53:42Our success in delivering on these goals matters to all Americans
53:44We understand that our actions affect communities, families, and businesses across the country
53:49Everything we do is in service to our public mission
53:53We at the Federal Reserve will do everything we can to Achieve our maximum employment and price stability goals
53:58Thank you
53:59I will look forward to your questions
54:00Okay
54:01Pretty benign
54:02Pretty benign
54:03Nothing there
54:04A lot of uncertainty
54:05Thanks for your time
54:06So, um, two things on the economic side here: inflation and then GDP
54:11How much of the higher inflation forecast for this year is due to tariffs? And since the policy path remains the same, are you effectively reading this as a one-time price level shock? Okay, so how much of it is, um, tariffs? So let me say that it is, um, going to be very difficult to have a precise assessment of how much of inflation is coming from tariffs and from, and that's already the case
54:39You may have seen that, um, goods
54:41Inflation moved up pretty significantly in the first two months of the year
54:46Trying to track that back to actual tariff increases, given what was tariffed and what was not, was very, very challenging
54:53So some of it— the answer is clearly, some of it, a good part of it, is coming from tariffs, but we will be working, and so will other forecasters, to try to find the best possible way to separate non-tariff inflation from tariff inflation
55:07In terms of your, your sort of looking-through question, it's too soon to say about that
55:16As I mentioned, it can be the case that it's appropriate sometimes to look through inflation if it's going to go away quickly without action by us, if it's transitory, and that can be the
55:29In the case of tariff inflation, I think that would depend on the tariff inflation moving through fairly quickly, and it would depend critically as well on inflation expectations being well anchored, with longer-term inflation expectations remaining well anchored
55:45Well, I guess I'm looking at the outer years here, and the fact that the policy path doesn't change at all and inflation is unchanged in the outer years also
55:54Doesn't that imply that you all have basically decided that there is no signal here and that we're just going back to transitory again? I think that's kind of the base case, but as I said, it's something we really can't know for sure
56:10We're going to have to see how things actually work
56:13And the fact that there wasn't much change, I think that's partly because, you know, you see, you see weaker growth but higher inflation
56:21They kind of offset each other, and also, frankly, a little bit of inertia when it comes to changing something in this highly uncertain environment
56:27You know, I think there is a level of inertia where you just say maybe I'll stay where I am
56:32Thank you
56:38Chair Powell Smith with the New York Times
56:39You just described inflation expectations as well anchored, but has your confidence in that assessment been reinforced by the measures of inflation expectations and the high degree of uncertainty expressed by businesses, households, and forecasters? So, on inflation expectations, Of course, we do monitor inflation expectations very, very carefully, basically from every source we can find
56:56You know, short-term, long-term, households, businesses, forecasters, market-based measures — and I think the picture broadly is this: you do see increases, widely in short-term inflation expectations, and people who fill out surveys and answer questionnaires are pointing to tariffs about that
57:19If you look in the survey world, and if you look a little further out, you really don't see much in the way of an increase
57:26Longer-term inflation expectations are mostly well anchored
57:30If you look at the New York Fed, for example, you have market-based measures, and it's the same pattern
57:33You know, the same trends
57:36People in markets are pricing in break-evens
57:38Some higher inflation over the next year must be related to tariffs
57:43We know from the surveys, but if you look out five years or the five-year forward, you'll see that break-evens have either flatlined or are actually slightly down in the case of a longer-term outlook
57:57So, we look at that and will be watching all of it very, very carefully
57:59He's now actively defending the transitory argument, which is at the very heart of our framework—anchored in inflation expectations— but that's what you see right now
58:06Wow
58:12How much weight do you put on the deterioration in consumer confidence surveys? You recently said that this is perhaps not the best indication of..
58:18Future spending, but I'm curious, you know, what you think is behind this deterioration and to what extent it could be a leading indicator for hard data
58:27So let's start with the hard data
58:30You know, we do see pretty solid hard data still
58:34So growth looks like it's maybe moderating a bit, consumer spending moderating a bit, but still at a solid pace
58:38Unemployment is 4.1%
58:42Job creation most recently has been at a healthy level
58:46Inflation has started to move up now; we think partly in response to tariffs, and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year
58:50So that's the hard data
58:54Overall, it's a solid picture
58:58The survey data, both household and business, show a significant rise
59:04In uncertainty and significant concerns about downside risk
59:08So how do we think about that? And that is the question
59:10Um, as I mentioned the other day, as you pointed out, um, the relationship between survey data and actual economic activity hasn't been very tight
59:21There have been plenty of times when people are saying very downbeat things about the economy and then going out and buying a new car
59:27Um, but we don't know that that will be the case here
59:31We will be watching very carefully for signs of weakness in the real data, of course
59:35But I, I, you know, given where we are, we think our policy is in a good place to react to what comes, and we think the right thing to do is to wait here
59:46Know for greater clarity about what the economy is doing
59:49This is weird
59:56I've never heard him discount the surveys before, like the PMIs, the S&P, or all that
01:00:01I've never heard him discounting those materially when it comes to the decisions of households and firms
01:00:08Can you say today that we have that price stability, that households and businesses are their main problem? You see, buy and hold psychology, big changes in inventories, and surveys that show consumers, at least in the short run, expect higher inflation
01:00:24So I do like that definition a lot
01:00:27In fact, I used it at the recent conference where I spoke
01:00:32So I think a world where people can make their daily economic decisions
01:00:36Decisions and businesses, and they're not having to think about the possibility of significantly high inflation
01:00:40We know inflation will bounce around
01:00:42That is price stability
01:00:43You know, I think we were getting closer and closer to that
01:00:47I wouldn't say we were there yet
01:00:50The inflation was running around 2.5% for some time
01:00:52I do think, with the arrival of the tariff-induced inflation, further progress may be delayed
01:00:58The SEP doesn't really show further downward progress on inflation this year, and that's really due to the tariffs coming in
01:01:06So, delayed, but if you look at our forecasts, we do see ourselves getting back up into the low twos in 2026 and then down to 2% by 2027
01:01:14Of course, highly uncertain, so I see
01:01:16Progress has been made toward that, and then progress in the future
01:01:21I think that progress is probably delayed for the time being
01:01:24If that's the case, why are there cuts in the SCP for 2025? So again, people wrote down two cuts the last time, and they look at the markets, they think three
01:01:35They wrote down, you know, a meaningful decline in growth from 2.1% to 1.7% in 2025, a tick up in the unemployment rate
01:01:45So, not much there, but core inflation up by 3.1%
01:01:49And so, those two kind of balance each other out
01:01:51So, people, not everybody, but on balance, people wrote down similar numbers
01:01:56The changes aren't that big
01:01:58The other factor, though, as I mentioned, is just really high
01:02:02Uncertainty
01:02:06What would you write down? I mean, it's just really hard to know how this is going to work out, and again, we think our policy is in a good place
01:02:10We think it's a good place where we can move in the direction that we need to, but we, we it's really appropriate to wait for further clarity, and of course, you know, the costs of doing that, given that the economy is still solid, are very low
01:02:25While the next person asks quickly, look, the yield curve is down six basis points on the 2-year, only down 27 on the 10-year
01:02:33That's a yield curve steepening a little more in the direction potentially of, you know, recession evaluation
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01:02:49Market participation is pretty high, accounting for aging
01:02:53Wages are consistent with 2% inflation, assuming that we're going to keep getting, you know, relatively high productivity
01:03:01We’ve got unemployment, you know, pretty close to its natural level, but the job hiring rate is low, and so is the layoff rate
01:03:09So, if you look at initial claims or layoffs, you're not seeing people losing their jobs, but you're seeing that people who don’t have a job are having to wait longer and longer
01:03:17And you..
01:03:26The question is, which way does that break? If we were to see a meaningful increase in layoffs, then that would probably translate fairly quickly into unemployment because people are, you know, it's not a big hiring market
01:03:29Yep
01:03:32We've been watching that and it's just not in the data
01:03:36It hasn't happened
01:03:37What we've had is a low firing, low hiring situation, and it seems to be in balance now for, you know, the last six, seven, eight months
01:03:42That's where we are
01:03:46There are healthy levels of job creation, too
01:03:50So overall, it's a labor market that's in balance, and, you know, we watch it very carefully
01:03:54So then, have we seen the administration, the new administration's policies in the economy? Numbers yet? And when do you anticipate that happening? In labor or in, in other areas? In labor and inflation, just across the economy, have we started to see the new policies take effect in the numbers? Bingo
01:04:09You know, only in a kind of early way
01:04:13I mean, it's only been a few months, right? Uh, I, you know, for example, the layoffs that are happening here are, you know, they're certainly meaningful to the people involved, and they may be meaningful to a particular neighborhood or region or area, but at the national level, they're not significant yet
01:04:30But we don't know, we don't know how far that will go
01:04:33We'll find out much more
01:04:35I mentioned that you saw, we've had two, um, two very strong goods..
01:04:37Inflation readings in the last two months have been very unexpected
01:04:43I think it's hard to trace it to specific tariffs, but it must have something to do with—it's either noise, and it'll come back—and that's very possible too
01:04:55But if it is persistent, then it must be related to people buying ahead of tariffs or raising prices ahead of tariffs, and things like that
01:05:02Those kinds of things happen and are very, very hard to capture because so much of it is indirect
01:05:05A great example is their washing machines, which were tariffed in the last round of tariffs, and prices went up
01:05:14But prices also went up on dryers, which were not tariffed
01:05:17So the manufacturers just, you know, they just kind of..
01:05:21Followed the crowd and raised rates
01:05:26So, things happen very indirectly, and so there will be a lot of work done in the coming months to try to trace all that through
01:05:30But ultimately, though, it's too soon to see significant effects in economic data
01:05:33Here's the bingo card just in case you want to see that really quickly, what I have so far
01:05:41Transitory price increases from tariffs are the base case
01:05:44Transitory is the base case
01:05:47Wasn't it the base case last time? And didn't the FOMC forecast lower inflation ahead last time? And wasn't the lesson that it quickly extended into services, haircuts, daycare, and everything else? So, I'm just wondering why the Fed officials aren't taking that into account and are cutting rates twice this
01:06:07When you say last time, are you talking about the last pandemic? Yes
01:06:12During that period, because you could have been referring to the last time there were tariffs, in which case the inflation was transitory
01:06:14Yeah
01:06:17Of course, we're well aware of that
01:06:20And, you know, it's still true
01:06:22If there's an inflationary impulse that's going to go away on its own, it's not the right policy to tighten policy because by the time you see the effect, you're, you know, you're effectively, by design, lowering economic activity and employment
01:06:40If that's not necessary, you don't want to do it
01:06:44In real time, as we know, it's hard to make that judgment
01:06:46So, and we're well aware of what happened
01:06:51Obviously, with, with, um, the pandemic inflation, but I mean, we have to look at this as a different situation
01:06:58There are differences and similarities
01:07:02I mean, it's a different time
01:07:04You know, we haven't had real price stability fully established yet, and we have to keep that in mind
01:07:09And, you know, we also hear that people are very reluctant to take on, to, you know, allow prices to go up
01:07:19At the same time, we hear that businesses are intending to pass many of these prices through
01:07:22So it's hard to say how this is going to work out
01:07:23Steve Leisman, CNBC
01:07:29Thanks for taking my question, Mr
01:07:31Chairman
01:07:33The Bank of Canada, in its last policy statement, said monetary policy cannot..
01:07:35Offset the impacts of a trade war
01:07:37What it can and must do is ensure that higher prices do not lead to ongoing inflation
01:07:42I wonder if that kind of, uh, reflects your own sense of prioritization faced with higher prices and weaker growth—that the idea is you have to take care of inflation, you know
01:07:55So, we have two goals, right? We have maximum employment and price stability, and we have to balance those
01:07:58And, uh, you know, there can be situations in which they're in tension, right? And we actually have a provision in our, uh, consensus statement that says what we should do in that case
01:08:10That's a very challenging, uh, situation for any central bank and certainly for us
01:08:14And so, what we say that we'll do is, we'll, we'll… Look how far each of those two goals, each of those two measures, is from its goal, and then we'll ask how long we think it might take to get back to the goal for each of them
01:08:28We'll make a judgment because our, you know, our tools work in one direction
01:08:31We're either tightening or loosening
01:08:33So, it's a very challenging situation
01:08:35Let me say we don't have that situation right now
01:08:37That's not what the—that's not where the economy is at all
01:08:40It's also not where the forecast is
01:08:42I don't know any mainstream forecasts that really show significant problems like that
01:08:46Um, so, well, just to follow up, yesterday the UCLA Anderson forecast said there's a high probability of a recession
01:08:55Where do you stand on whether or not the slowdown..
01:08:57You're seeing creates a higher probability or concern that you may have on recession? Thank you
01:09:01You know, there's always an unconditional probability, or possibility, of a recession
01:09:05It might be broadly in the range of one in four at any time if you look back through the years
01:09:13There could be within 12 months a one in four chance of a recession
01:09:16So, the question is whether that, uh, whether this current situation makes those possibilities elevated
01:09:22I will say this, we don't make such forecasts
01:09:26If you look at outside forecasts, forecasters have generally raised their possibility of a recession somewhat, but still at relatively moderate levels, you know, still
01:09:38In the region of the traditional, because they were extremely low
01:09:41If you go back two months, people were saying that the likelihood of a recession was extremely low
01:09:46So, it has moved up, but it's not high
01:09:48Chris, hi
01:09:52Uh, thank you
01:09:56Chris Rugaber at Associated Press
01:09:57Um, as you know, I guess last night, President Trump fired two members of the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency, and this could cause a fight about the administration's power to fire independent people
01:10:11Um, if those firings stand, is that a threat to the Fed's independence? Um, could he do the same thing to the Fed board? So, I think I answered that question in this very room some time ago, and I have no desire to change
01:10:26That answer, and have nothing new for you on that today
01:10:27Well, okay
01:10:33Well, maybe I have another mulligan
01:10:38Um, as you know, I wanted to go back to the consumer sentiment, particularly the inflation expectations in the University of Michigan survey in the summer of 2022
01:10:44You cited the rise in the long-term inflation expectations in that index as the reason that you went big with a 3/4 point hike
01:10:51So, I know you, I mean you've talked about all the different measures now, but you seem to not be placing the same weight on that
01:10:57And so, I'm just wondering, are you dismissing what we saw last week from the University of Michigan, or does that carry the same weight as it did in the past? So, I mentioned it back then, but In no way did I place a huge weight on it
01:11:12I think it was an ex-post story, but it wasn't the case
01:11:14That was a preliminary reading, and so is this
01:11:18And it's also—this is Michigan, the one you're referring to, the longer-term thing
01:11:23You know, we look at it, we don't dismiss data that we don't like
01:11:26We, we, we, we force ourselves to look at it, but it is an outlier compared to market-based and compared to other survey-based assessments of longer-run inflation expectations
01:11:35So, we have to keep that in mind
01:11:38And I, again, I would just say we look at all of them, and that one's kind of an outlier, but nonetheless, we take notice of it
01:11:49Michael, Michael McKeon from Bloomberg Radio and Television
01:11:54Um
01:11:56There is a worry on Wall Street that when you say you want to study the net effect of the fiscal policies we may see on the economy, you would end up waiting too long and be behind the curve in responding to any downturn
01:12:10How can you reassure people that you can spot a problem early enough, unless you decide to be preemptive? Yeah, look, we're aware of that
01:12:23We're well aware of how things are going to evolve and the time frames and all that
01:12:27And you know, we will use our tools to foster the achievement of our goals to the best of our ability
01:12:32And of course, we're going to try to be timely with that
01:12:35For right now, the hard data are pretty solid
01:12:40We, we, we are obviously aware of the soft sentiment data and high uncertainty, and we're
01:12:44Watching that carefully, and we think it's a good time for us to wait for further clarity before we consider adjusting our policy stance
01:12:51Do you think it's going to be hard to get clarity in a government by tweet? I mean, do you have a feeling that at some point you actually will have a forecast you can trust? Yes, I think we will
01:13:03I just find it hard to say when that will be
01:13:06These decisions are going to be made and implemented, and then we'll know at that point what the decisions are
01:13:14We'll have to make assessments about their implications for the economy
01:13:18Those things will happen a lot over the course of the coming months, certainly
01:13:21Over the course of this year, and we'll be adapting as we go
01:13:25Hi, Chair Powell
01:13:31Rachel Siegel from The Washington Post, thank you for taking our questions
01:13:33At the beginning, you were talking about separating the signal from the noise and tariff inflation from non-tariff inflation
01:13:41Can you walk us through what that looked like over the last couple of months? If there were specifics from the January meeting to now that helped you make those distinctions? So, when we say separating the signal from the noise, that's just a way of saying that things are highly uncertain and that, you know, you're reading about developments
01:13:57The news is full of developments of tariffs being put on and taken off, and things like that
01:14:00That's some of that is..
01:14:02Noise, in the sense that it's not really telling you anything
01:14:06You're trying to extract a signal from that, and the signal is what's going to be the effect on economic activity, on inflation, on employment, and all those things
01:14:15So, that's really when we say "signal" and "noise." Sorry, the second thing was—or similarly, for tariff inflation, non-tariff inflation, ways that you're making—that's sort of a special case of that
01:14:23The idea being—and I do think that the first two months of this year are a great example—you've got high readings for goods inflation after a string of readings that average close to zero, and you have to ask—it's coming during tariffs—but that, you know, you can't, it's very hard to..
01:14:41Actually, scientifically, go back and match up those increases and say yes, I can prove that that's from tariffs, but it kind of has to be to some extent
01:14:49Plus, noise there can be idiosyncratic readings in various categories, which we'll shortly reverse, and that happens too
01:14:56That could be a big piece of it
01:14:57You know, I think we'll know in a couple of months whether those increases were, you know, really from tariffs or not
01:15:02But it's another case where I think it's going to be very, very challenging to unpack the inflation we see over the course of this year and be able to say with confidence how much of that came from inflation, how much from tariffs, and how much didn't
01:15:17But that's what we'll be..
01:15:19Doing
01:15:20We'll be doing that, and so will everybody else
01:15:22And we'll all be trying very hard to make that assessment
01:15:24And you know, I'm sure we will make a lot of progress on that, and we already have
01:15:29But it's going to be a challenge
01:15:31Do you have a sense yet as to what, in your mind, would make something cross from noise to a signal? What that threshold would look like? You know, it would depend on what we're talking about
01:15:40I mean, obviously, you're looking for direct evidence that that particular pieces of inflation are or are not caused by tariffs
01:15:49For example, something that was, you know, in the service sector that was far away from anything that's tariffed, you might think, okay, well, that is like, Frankly, housing services inflation, which, by the way, has been behaving well—something that was kind of our problem for some time
01:16:06Now, it's slow, but it's definitely moving down in a very good way
01:16:11It's more now with goods and, to some extent, with non-housing services inflation
01:16:15Kelly, thanks for taking our questions
01:16:23Chair Powell, Kelly O'Grady, CBS News
01:16:24So, consumer sentiment has dipped dramatically, but you say the economy and the hard data are still solid
01:16:31What is your message to consumers who clearly disagree and don't feel that strength? Because the hard data they're looking at is their grocery bill
01:16:41Okay, so a couple of things
01:16:42The grocery bill is about..
01:16:44About past inflation, really
01:16:46There was inflation in 2021 and 2022, and prices went up
01:16:51The current level, it's not the change in prices itself, it's that they're unhappy, and they're not wrong to be unhappy that prices went up quite a bit, and they're paying a lot for those things
01:17:00So, I think that is the fundamental fact and has been for a long time, a couple of years, why people are unhappy with the economy
01:17:07It's not that the economy is not growing, it's not that inflation is really high, it's not that unemployment is high, it's none of those things
01:17:15We have, you know, 4.1% unemployment, we've got 2% growth, and, you know, it's a pretty good economy
01:17:21But people are unhappy because of the price level, and I do..
01:17:24we completely Understand and accept that
01:17:26And just to follow up, why are you still projecting two rate cuts this year if your own projections show inflation higher for longer? Does that mean you see a slowdown in economic growth as a real threat? So I think, yeah
01:17:40I mean, remember we came into this with, at the December meeting, the median was two cuts
01:17:49The median was, so you come in and you see broadly speaking weaker growth but higher inflation, and they kind of balance each other out
01:17:58So you think, and unemployment is really there, really only a one-tenth change
01:18:02So it's just not a big change in the forecast
01:18:06There really isn't, modest, you know, meaningfully higher growth and meaningfully higher..
01:18:12Inflation, which calls for different responses, right? So, they cancel each other out, and people just say, "Okay, I'm going to stay here." But the second factor is that it's so highly uncertain
01:18:20It is just, you know, we're sitting here thinking, and we, we, we obviously are in touch with businesses and households all over the country
01:18:28We have an extraordinary network of contacts that come through the Federal Reserve Banks and are included in the Beige Book, as well as contacts at the Federal Reserve Board
01:18:37We get all that information, and we do understand that sentiment has fallen off pretty sharply, but economic activity has not yet declined
01:18:42So, we're watching carefully
01:18:46I would tell people that the economy still seems to be healthy
01:18:51We understand that
01:18:54That sentiment is quite negative at this time, and that probably has to do with, you know, turmoil at the beginning of an administration that's making, you know, big changes in areas of policy, and that's probably part of it
01:19:07I do think the underlying unhappiness people have about the economy, though, is more about the price level
01:19:14Victoria, um, hi Victoria Aguido with Politico
01:19:21I wanted to ask, first of all, if you could, uh, clarify—you were talking about how tariffs were a good part of the uptick in the inflation forecast, and I was just wondering what that specifically refers to
01:19:34Is that the tariffs that have already been put in place? Is that anticipating some of the tariffs that might be coming on? April 2nd? And then also, if you wouldn't mind, um, talking a little more about the balance sheet decision and what drove that
01:19:47Did that have anything to do with expectations of how the debt ceiling, raising the debt ceiling might affect the reserve supply? Yeah
01:19:53So, in the SEP, you'll see that there's no further progress on core inflation
01:19:57This year, we're kind of flatlining, going sideways
01:20:02We don't ask people to specify how much of this is from tariffs and how much is not, but some of it is from tariffs
01:20:08We know that tariffs are coming in; we know that they're probably already being factored into forecasts affecting core PCE inflation and core CPI inflation this year, without..
01:20:20I'm not aware of an exception, so it's in there
01:20:23I can't tell you how much of that it is, in terms of the balance sheet
01:20:25So, yeah, I think, um, I guess the way I'd say it is, uh, you know, it was the flows in and out of the, um, the TGA that got us thinking about it
01:20:39But as we, I thought about it, we really came to the view that this was a good time to make the move that we made
01:20:47And, um, broadly, the committee came around to the view that we would do the same thing we'd already done, which is, once we, I guess, in June—was it June, whenever it was—we lowered the pace of quantitative tightening, and we're just going to do that again
01:21:06We're going to cut it roughly in half
01:21:07And the sense of that is, if you're cutting the pace of quantitative tightening roughly in half
01:21:12Then the runway is probably doubled
01:21:14Okay? So, it's going to be slower for longer, and people really like that
01:21:19People thought that's a good idea
01:21:21You know, it's like a plane
01:21:23You can think of it like a plane coming in for a landing
01:21:25As we get closer, and we—by the way, we still think that reserves are abundant, although you begin to see some of the things we look at begin to react a little bit
01:21:34But we still think that reserves are abundant, and of course, now the TGA is emptying out, so reserves are higher now
01:21:40So, you can't really see the underlying signal
01:21:42So, we came around to that view, and it had a lot of appeal
01:21:45And so, we did it
01:21:48Really, it has no implications at all for monetary policy
01:21:51It has no
01:21:53Implications at all for the ultimate size of the balance sheet
01:21:56It isn't sending a signal in any hidden way that you can try to tease out
01:22:02It's just not there
01:22:08We're, we're basically, it's very consistent with our plans and our practices that we've published and that we have followed since we began this, which is a very successful, uh, rundown of the balance sheet
01:22:14Um, again, the second time that we've slowed the pace and we've said that we would stop when we were somewhat above the level we judge is ample, and clearly we're not at that level yet, but we're going to be approaching it more slowly
01:22:26It's a common-sense kind of a thing, and it had pretty broad appeal
01:22:29We cues are about to hit 484
01:22:31We called that before the
01:22:33The meeting
01:22:35Said we could go from 4.76% to 4.84%, especially in the Summary of Economic Projections this morning
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01:22:44Would you still say they remain well anchored today? And just to reiterate the question, if they're not so well anchored, why hasn't there been a more radical shift in the policy path today? Thank you
01:22:59So, when we talk about inflation expectations being well anchored, we're referring to longer-term inflation expectations
01:23:07And they really haven't moved much, I mean, if at all
01:23:10There's one reading that everyone's focusing on that shows it higher, but the other survey readings are...] Market-based readings all show relatively, you know, well-anchored inflation expectations
01:23:21You would expect that expectations of inflation over the course of a year would move around because conditions change
01:23:31And in this case, we have tariffs coming in
01:23:33We don't know how big, or what the specifics are, but we kind of know they're going to be tariffs, and they tend to bring growth down
01:23:41They tend to push inflation up at first
01:23:42So, I would say, you know, I'm not dismissing what we're seeing in short-term inflation expectations
01:23:49We, as I mentioned, follow that very carefully
01:23:51But when we say expectations are well-anchored, we're really looking at, you know, longer-term, five years and out
01:23:59And there's really no story to tell five years out either, in market-based measures or in surveys
01:24:04But we keep, we'll watch it
01:24:07I mean, we're not, uh, you know, we're not going to miss any evidence that longer-term or medium-term inflation expectations are moving
01:24:14Hi, Chair Powell
01:24:19Neil Irwin with Axios
01:24:25Um, Treasury Secretary Yellen has observed that a large share of job growth over the last couple of years has been in what she calls government or government-adjacent sectors—healthcare, education
01:24:30Uh, do you agree that there's some weakness in underlying private job growth? And do you see the composition of job growth as something that has policy implications? So, that has been the case
01:24:39We talked about that
01:24:48Over the course of the last year, there were some good months and times when a lot of the job creation was concentrated in educational institutions, healthcare, state governments, and things like that
01:24:57There were also times when private sector job growth was moving in a healthy range
01:25:02I mean, they're all jobs, but, and remember, we're at very low unemployment for quite a while now
01:25:10So, I think it's a good labor market, but it's something that we monitor carefully
01:25:16From our standpoint, employment is employment
01:25:17But, you know, the elected government is entitled to have, you know, we don't have Policies that address different kinds of employment, but the elected government has a different role, and they can have those
01:25:25Here's a quick Q&A
01:25:32Does the committee envision at some point tapering the MBS runoff as well? I think tapering it, I don't know
01:25:40There's no plan to do that
01:25:42You know, at a certain point we'll stop runoff
01:25:44We may or may not stop MBS runoff, because we can—we want to stop runoff in net at some point
01:25:54We haven't made any decisions about that
01:25:56You know, we want the MBS to roll off our balance sheet
01:25:59We really strongly desire that
01:26:03So, but we haven't made any decisions about it
01:26:06You know, we will, I think we'd..
01:26:08Look carefully at letting that keep going, but hold the overall size of the balance sheet in, uh, uh, constant at some point
01:26:15A point that we're not out yet
01:26:17Simon Simonovich with the economist, thank you, Chair Powell
01:26:24Uh, several times today you've said that you feel you're well positioned to wait for greater clarity
01:26:29Uh, at the same time, you could point to quite a few growth risks at the moment
01:26:33We've seen a stock market that's gone, uh, quite wobbly, rapidly cooling housing sales, plunge in confidence surveys
01:26:39Uh, today, not only did the S&P mark down the growth outlook 17 of 19, uh, see risks to the downside
01:26:43Uh, so my question is, how confident are you that you're well positioned, or is that one more thing that you're..
01:26:50I'm uncertain about? I'm confident that we're well positioned in the sense that we're, we're well positioned to move in the direction we'll need to move
01:26:58I, I mean, I, uh, I don't know anyone who has a lot of confidence in their forecast
01:27:02I mean, the point is we are, we are at a, you know, we're at a place where we can cut, where we or we can hold what is a clearly a restrictive stance of policy
01:27:10Uh, and that's what I mean
01:27:14I mean, I think we're that's well positioned
01:27:16Uh, forecasting right now is, you know, forecasting is always very, very hard, and, uh, the, in the current situation, I just think it's, uncertainty is, you know, remarkably high, and, sorry, standing here today, would you be brought, uh, to pivot back towards rate cuts in May? Look, I, I think we're not
01:27:35Going to be in no hurry to move, and as I mentioned, I think we're well positioned to wait for further clarity and not in any hurry
01:27:45Matt from CNN summarizes, "The Fed statement released today removed a line that previously said the committee judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are in balance." Can you explain the decision to remove that line? Does it mean that you're now more concerned about inflation or about..
01:28:11Actually, it does not mean either of those things
01:28:12Okay
01:28:14You know, sometimes with language, it..
01:28:16it lives its useful life and then we take it off, and that was the case here
01:28:23There's really no intended signal here over the past year
01:28:27Conveying the sense of the balance of risks was important, that they be in balance or close to being in balance
01:28:35That was useful as we approached liftoff, if you remember
01:28:39But we're past that, or sorry, now beginning to cut
01:28:41Um, so we just took it out
01:28:45I actually would say that the more important thing now about risks— and this is in the, at pages like 10, 11, 12 of the SCP— if you look, participants widely raised their estimate of the risks to, or of, uncertainty, but also of the risks to growth, employment, and inflation mandates
01:29:06That's a more salient point now than whether they're in balance
01:29:10That's a good point
01:29:12Just on the stock market, the stock market's obviously..
01:29:16Declined significantly since the Fed last met
01:29:17Um, are you concerned at all about some of the market volatility having a real economic impact in terms of hurting business spending or consumer spending, especially among higher-income households? So, financial conditions matter to us because, you know, financial conditions are the main channel to the real economy through which our policy has its effects
01:29:38So, they’re important, but what matters from a Fed standpoint, for the macroeconomy, is material changes to overall financial conditions that are persistent, that last for a while, long enough to actually affect economic activity
01:29:54So, that’s what we’re looking for
01:29:56I, I’m not going to comment on the… Appropriate level of any market, equity, debt, commodities, or anything like that
01:30:04Um, and I would just point you to the bigger picture again
01:30:06You know, the real economy, the hard data are still in reasonably good shape
01:30:12It's the soft data, it's the surveys that are showing, uh, significant concerns, downside risks, and those kinds of things
01:30:19We don't dismiss that
01:30:20We're watching it carefully
01:30:22But, you know, we don't want to get ahead of that
01:30:24You know, we want to focus on the hard data
01:30:25If that's going to affect the hard data, we should know it very quickly and, of course, we'll understand that
01:30:34But you don't see that yet
01:30:36That's a warning
01:30:37That's a warning if I've ever seen one
01:30:39Thank you
01:30:40Chair Pal
01:30:41Jennifer Shawn Burgerer with Yahoo Finance
01:30:42As you look to navigate higher inflation and lower growth, the Fed has talked about heeding the lessons from the 1970s
01:30:51Is the Fed willing to accept a recession if it means breaking the back of inflation? Well, fortunately, we're in a situation where we have seen inflation move down from higher levels to pretty close to 2%, while the unemployment rate has remained very consistent with full employment, at 4.1%
01:31:15So, we now have inflation coming in from an exogenous source, but the underlying inflationary picture before that was, I would say, basically 2.5% inflation, 2% growth, and 4% unemployment
01:31:20So, that's what..
01:31:25That's what we did
01:31:31That's what, together, the economy accomplished
01:31:32So I don't see any reason to think that we're looking at a replay of the 1970s or anything like that
01:31:40You know, inflation, underlying inflation, is still running in the twos, with probably a little bit of a pickup associated with tariffs
01:31:48Um, so I don't think we're facing, I wouldn't say we're in a situation that's remotely comparable to that
01:31:55 And last month, the idea of a Dogecoin dividend was proposed, which would send $5,000 checks to every taxpayer from Doge Savings
01:32:02President Trump and Elon Musk have supported this
01:32:04There's reports that there could be a bill introduced on Capitol Hill
01:32:08What impact might that have on household savings and..
01:32:09Spending, um, in terms of your growth and outlook for inflation? You know, I, it's not appropriate for me to speculate on political ideas or fiscal policy, for that matter
01:32:21So, I'm going to pass on that one
01:32:24Thank you
01:32:26Daniel, shut down
01:32:29Hi, Chal Daniel Avis from Agence France-Presse
01:32:31Um, you mentioned that tariffs are already having at least some impact on inflation
01:32:35I'm just wondering how you and your colleagues on the FOMC have been thinking about the possibility of retaliatory tariffs from other countries, especially with April the 2nd coming up
01:32:43Was it something you considered during this meeting? Thanks
01:32:46So, since the very beginning, um, we've had kind of a placeholder
01:32:51The staff has a..
01:32:56Placeholder of, um, range of really a range of possible outcomes from tariffs and trade policy generally, and they generally assume full retaliation in those
01:33:01And so that's kind of baked into the numbers
01:33:05What happens will be complicated, and there will be some retaliation and some not, and all that, but ultimately, they're trying to give us a broad sense of what this might look like with the placeholder
01:33:16When we actually know the specifics, we'll be able to have better-informed forecasts, although some uncertainty will remain
01:33:20So, yes, that's in there
01:33:25Last question goes to Jean
01:33:27Oh, last question
01:33:28Hi
01:33:30Going to be crap
01:33:32Uh, Gene Young with M&I Market News
01:33:33Here it comes
01:33:35Um, I had a couple..
01:33:38Questions on the balance sheet change
01:33:42So, the minutes had initially described your discussion on slowing QT as temporary, until the debt ceiling is resolved
01:33:45But from what you said earlier, it doesn't sound like there's a desire to accelerate the pace of QT that we have at the moment after the debt ceiling is resolved
01:33:54Is that the case? Yes
01:33:57So, we looked at pausing and we looked at slowing, and really, people came together very strongly behind slowing, not pausing, for a variety of reasons
01:34:07And so, people really came to be, you know, pretty strongly in favor of this move, which slows down the pace and probably lengthens it, you know, doubles it effectively by slowing it by half
01:34:19That's what people thought
01:34:21That's a good place to be
01:34:23It will, you know, help us ensure that this path is a smooth one as we get closer and closer to that
01:34:30So that's how that came about
01:34:36Well, I guess my question is more whether that was meant to be a temporary measure during the debt ceiling episode, or, you know, if it was actually the Treasury General Account flows that got us thinking about this
01:34:43But the more we thought about it, we came around to this solution, and, you know, it is — yes, it was provoked by that initial discussion, but I think what we came up with is broader than that and different
01:34:56It does address that issue, but it also fits in really nicely with our principles, our plans, and the things we're aiming for
01:35:03We've done before and the things we said we would do
01:35:05So that's why, you know, pretty strong support
01:35:08I just say it's nothing to do with monetary policy, nothing to do with the size of the balance sheet
01:35:12It's just a kind of common-sense adjustment as you get closer
01:35:16Let's slow down a little bit again, and that way we'll be more and more confident that we're getting where we need to get
01:35:21You can take your time getting there
01:35:25You know, we're shrinking the balance sheet every month, and we think that's a good play
01:35:30And as I mentioned, in summary, thanks very much
01:35:31Boom
01:35:32Shut down
01:35:33That was Chair Jerome Powell
01:35:36One heck of a press conference
01:35:41We got a lot to cover in this one, from transitory inflation being back to two cuts
01:35:45Forecast for the year
01:35:49A dirty bear lives inside the Federal Reserve building
01:35:54We’ve got to talk about that
01:35:59And can we just, I mean, if we listen, if we took a shot for every time they use the word "uncertainty," first of all, we'd be dead
01:36:04Second of all, we'd probably start scratching our heads a little bit and wondering if maybe what they're telling us isn't exactly what they think is going to happen
01:36:13So, we have a lot to break down here
01:36:15But first of all, look, overall, this is exactly what we thought the Fed was going to give us
01:36:20In fact, this morning in our Alpha Report, we talked about how we thought the NASDAQ 100 via the QQQs would run all the way up to 484 from the level that we got, which was around 476, which, by the way, intraday is a..
01:36:25Huge movement from NASDAQ
01:36:31What did we get? We did get exactly that
01:36:36We got about 485
01:36:39This is the kind of stuff we talk about daily
01:36:41You see it on the channel
01:36:43I'll keep bringing it to you
01:36:45But if you want to be part of the course member live streams or the Alpha Report, you can now get it all in a very low-priced Meet Kevin membership
01:36:49Less than a buck seventy a day
01:36:52Really affordable
01:36:54If you want to try it for 30 days, give it a shot
01:36:57You get all courses, all trade alerts, every private live stream, Alpha Reports, course member meetups, you name it
01:37:03We have a lot of cool things coming this year
01:37:05So, be a part of it and ask me any questions you have directly, and join in the fundamental analysis
01:37:10But for now, though, we need to talk about… This Fed warning is because there was a warning buried in this
01:37:15And I'll tell you, we actually did pretty well with bingo as well
01:37:17Look at this
01:37:19The green here shows the ones we hit
01:37:22We got bingo twice over
01:37:24When do we get bingo twice over? We'll talk about all of it
01:37:27First, let's get into the most critical stuff
01:37:30So, Jerome Powell, towards the end of the press conference, gave us something we've really never paid attention to before
01:37:37He brought us to pages 11 and 12 of the Summary of Economic Projections, saying, "Look, we're holding rates steady, but something has changed in terms of the forecasts we're giving you
01:37:47We're basically telling you to your face that the forecasts we're giving you aren't really worth anything anymore." He's used the word uncertainty probably at least 50 times during this presser, but he actually even pointed us to the chart in case it wasn't obvious enough that the Federal Reserve has no freaking clue what's going to happen
01:38:05They pointed at this chart and said, "Our uncertainty is now way higher than it was in December
01:38:10The December projections are the dotted line right here, and everything has gone to the higher side, higher to the upside." In other words, we have no idea
01:38:20Now, why is that happening? I think it's because the Federal Reserve just spent an hour and a half telling us—this is the summary right here
01:38:28This line is your summary
01:38:30The hard data is really good
01:38:34Things are hugely positive
01:38:38The soft data, okay, That's like your takeaway from this
01:38:42Bluntly put, the hard economic data, like actual real data that's being reported from January and December and Q4, is still great
01:38:55Things are still moving wonderfully
01:38:59The leading indicators, the soft data, are really bad
01:39:05But fortunately, the Fed has a solution for you
01:39:08The Fed is letting you know that, don't worry, this time is different, and transitory inflation is back
01:39:17All the soft data is going to crap because of tariff uncertainty
01:39:20In fact, Jerome Powell bluntly defended the surveys and the soft data by saying, "Look, when you look at the details of the surveys, they all talk about tariff uncertainty." And honestly, he's right
01:39:32He is right about that
01:39:35When you look..
01:39:38At the ISM, when you look at the PMIs, when you look at the University of Michigan sentiment surveys, and when you look at any report, everybody talks about tariff uncertainty
01:39:45Jerome Powell says, "We'll know very quickly if tariff uncertainty and the soft data end up translating into bad hard data." That is a pretty big warning for you
01:39:58Now, he doesn't give us a time frame for that; he just says we'll know very quickly
01:40:03So, what kind of time frame could we potentially know if this soft data is going to turn into bad hard data? And if we have bad hard data, things could probably get bad very quickly
01:40:15Let's talk about why in just a moment
01:40:16What time frame could we potentially have? Well, we know that tariffs are expected to take full..
01:40:24Effective April 2nd
01:40:32If we kick the can down the road on that, maybe no big deal, right? But if tariffs take effect April 2nd, when do we start seeing the hard data of pain? In April? Well, you're going to see it in May and in the middle of June because, in that six-week period, is when you get the hard data for April
01:40:40So, we are in the middle of March right now, which means the next three months will probably reveal whether or not we are going to enter a recession or not
01:40:52In other words, Jerome Powell is telling you to your face that, hey, everything's good right now, as we expected him to say
01:40:59But he's also telling you the next three months could be a—SHIT show because, if this soft data turns into hard data, it's a..
01:41:04Problem
01:41:08And the bond market's already reacting to this somewhat
01:41:12In fact, if you look at the spread between the 2-year and the 10-year, it's down 5.7 basis points and the 10-year is down 2.7
01:41:19You can see the spread has actually widened today
01:41:21Not by much
01:41:24We're still only at around 27 to 28 basis points spread apart
01:41:26But the fact that the 2-year is falling faster than the 10-year suggests both sides are saying, "Okay, all right
01:41:34We're going to go with a lower growth outlook." Why? Because their GDP forecasts were reduced by about 10%
01:41:40We'll show that in just a moment
01:41:43But the spread widening is a concern
01:41:45Once we get to a spread of about 50 to 90, it's usually indicative of a recessionary shock, and that shock could appear within the next three..
01:41:55Months, which is interesting because what I'm telling a lot of folks is that now could be a potential time to look at the debts you have and the margin you have, and get out of debt
01:42:04Take advantage of the little rallies that we're getting, the bounce that we're getting on Powell
01:42:06Get out of debt
01:42:08Don't get screwed if we go into a recession
01:42:10If we don't go into a recession in the next three to six months, no problem
01:42:14All in the dip, baby
01:42:15Let's go
01:42:17We're going back to the moon
01:42:18But I'm just telling you where my money is going and where my mouth is going
01:42:22It's very clear
01:42:25I just put $5 million
01:42:28This isn't, it's not like, oh, I just bought a stock and $200 of a stock, and I'm trying to make a YouTube video on it to farm content
01:42:31I'm being blunt with you
01:42:34You, $5 million right into something that I think does well countercyclically in a recession and pays me a yield
01:42:38Spoiler alert, many of you already know this—it's House Hack
01:42:42Yeah, it's my company
01:42:43I'm biased
01:42:44Okay, househack.com
01:42:44You already know about this
01:42:45Non-accredited investors, by the way
01:42:46I haven't announced that yet, but it's open right now
01:42:51We're quietly launching that
01:42:55But what's remarkable is I think that as we get towards the end of this year, you're going to have the answer—did we stick to a soft landing or not? And you want to be prepared for both realities
01:43:00Are you going to buy the dip on stocks now, or are you going to wait for when Jay Powell actually freaks out? Because that's the next warning he gave you
01:43:09And I Want to be prepared for that JPAL freakout
01:43:11That's the best time to buy stocks
01:43:12That's the best time to buy real estate
01:43:14That's what we're prepping for
01:43:16So, what is the JPAL freakout, and how are we going to get the freakout based on what he told us today? Well, he made it very clear nationally, we are not seeing layoffs right now
01:43:26However, and these are his words, an increase in layoffs would move up unemployment quickly
01:43:33That's a huge warning because I want you to put this puzzle together for a moment
01:43:40He just told you, "We have no fracking idea what's going on
01:43:44Our forecasts are worthless." That's in writing
01:43:46He told you we have no idea what's going on
01:43:50What we do think is that things got a little bit worse
01:43:53In fact, we..
01:43:57I wrote down our GDP projections from 2% to 1.8%
01:44:01But we don't really think the unemployment rate is going to go up
01:44:05Really? So, in your forecast, you say you don't think the unemployment rate is going to go up, but in your discussion, you go, "Yeah, if we see an increase in layoffs, the unemployment rate is going to go up immediately." So, the only thing, the only glue holding this all together is we don't see broad national-based layoffs yet
01:44:23Jerome Powell, if you listen very closely, he said, "If we see national level layoffs, we're going to have to move very quickly." In English, they're going to have to cut rates very rapidly, which is very interesting
01:44:37It presents some curious opportunities for investing
01:44:39But I want..
01:44:42You to know the Fed just got more bearish
01:44:44At least, well, one person did
01:44:47Look at this: this is the December projection of GDP forecasts
01:44:53In 2025, nobody was under 1.6%
01:44:55In 2026, we have one person at 1.4%
01:44:59For 2027, we have one person at 1.4%
01:45:03That's not that big of a bear case
01:45:06But what happened in today's summary of economic projections you may have missed? Scroll down to it
01:45:09Look at the bearish forecast
01:45:12One individual at the Federal Reserve is panicking
01:45:15We have never seen one person at the Federal Reserve panic yet this cycle
01:45:22This is the start of panic
01:45:25This is the start of panic, where one person at the Federal Reserve says, "Crap, this soft data could roll over into layoffs very rapidly, and things could change extremely quickly." Now, who knows? Maybe it won't happen
01:45:40Maybe we won't have the bearishness, and we don't have our..
01:45:42That would be great because the suffering is going to be terrible
01:45:46It's going to be really hard to get jobs when layoffs skyrocket, thanks in part to AI
01:45:52It's going to be really hard to get people to hire again
01:45:54So, I'm not looking forward to that
01:45:56But I do think, as a human being, person to person, like, if you want to join the Meet Kevin membership, that's fine
01:46:02You want to invest in HouseLike, that's fine
01:46:03But just as a human to human, whether you support the channel, whether you're a hater, whether you're a lover, a subscriber, an investor, or just a watcher, whatever, please protect your downside because you might look at this Fed
01:46:15The meeting and go, "Oh, J-PAL told us everything is fine and the stock market went up." You're missing the boat
01:46:22I think you're being blatantly lied to because, frankly, if the Federal Reserve told you what they truly thought instead of saying our forecast isn't worth anything, uncertainty is up, and they actually said soft data is a leading indicator of pain to come, this market would be dumping
01:46:40Now, I want you to look at—and I, I don't have any puts or calls
01:46:45Okay, this doesn't align well with the exception of the bond market, but that's a hedge
01:46:48Um, so I'm not benefiting, in my opinion, in one way or another, from this stuff
01:46:54I'm just trying to give it to you straight because I want to be here for— Thank you for the next 60 years talking to you about Powell
01:47:00You know, in 60 years I believe, no, guess what the Fed's doing, you know, like
01:47:03So I want to preserve that integrity of always giving you my honest opinion of what's going on
01:47:09Look at what we got on bingo
01:47:11I've never been this damn good at bingo before, okay? So please like the video for that
01:47:16But damn, this was good bingo
01:47:18Okay
01:47:19JPAL brings a Windows laptop
01:47:21Son of a gun brings a Windows laptop
01:47:22Okay
01:47:24Damn
01:47:26Anyway, we got the classic dual mandate
01:47:27Hey, why did you remove the balance of risk? Oh, that's not that useful anymore
01:47:32Okay, Fed
01:47:34The labor market is healthy
01:47:35Yeah, right now it is
01:47:37Hire for longer if the data continues on its course
01:47:38Fine
01:47:40JPAL asked somebody to repeat a
01:47:41Question abruptly cuts somebody off about politics
01:47:44He says right now we don't have a recession in the data
01:47:46He doesn't see layoffs coming right now, and the economy is in good shape
01:47:49I even wrote, wrote, everything is fine
01:47:52Picture SpongeBob with the fire in the background, but him saying everything is fine
01:47:56He avoids suggesting the labor market could roll over
01:48:00He does, but he makes it pretty clear that if it does, they're going to have to move very fast
01:48:05And this, if you listen to the conversation honestly, I kind of want to go through and pull a transcript of this
01:48:12I don't know if we'd be able to get it this quickly, but it would be fascinating to go to the Federal Reserve Board and pull a transcript of this meeting
01:48:19Count how many times they use the word "that's not up yet." Count how many times they use the word "uncertainty." And it is going to be the largest count we've ever seen before
01:48:32Now, now that I've gone through some of these warnings here, the bear inside of the Fed and this talk about we're sort of like on the teeter of potentially soft data turning into bad hard data within the next three months
01:48:45Let's go through a little bit more of what J.P
01:48:47Morgan's Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, said
01:48:49So, recent indications point to a moderation in consumer spending
01:48:51Okay, duh
01:48:53It remains to be seen how this affects future spending
01:48:55He literally opens up with, "Yeah, some of the recent data sucks and we don't really know what this is going to do yet." I mean, I think he's being as Blunt as he can, he's telling you just to be careful
01:49:05Then he talks about how there are four major changes underway because of Trump: trade, immigration, regulation, and fiscal spending
01:49:11Okay, red flag because we don't know what the outcome's going to be
01:49:16He says if the economy remains strong, we can maintain
01:49:18If the labor market were to weaken unexpectedly or inflation were to fall faster, we'd be able to lower rates
01:49:23I think both of those are going to happen
01:49:26I think you're going to get a weaker labor market rapidly, and you're going to get rapid disinflation because of that
01:49:30They’re cutting to zero soon
01:49:33That's my opinion
01:49:36I'm always trying to separate, though, my opinion from fact so you can make your own judgment
01:49:39I think you're smart enough to make your own opinion
01:49:40Uh, short-term inflation expectations are up
01:49:42We need the tariffs, though
01:49:43Fine
01:49:44Okay
01:49:45This was interesting
01:49:46Then he gets into this whole thing about how inflation's going to be transitory because of tariffs
01:49:52And he had this sort of mic drop moment where somebody said, "Wait, isn't this the same thing you said last time?" And then Powell's like, "Well, what do you mean last time? Are you talking about the last time we had tariffs?" And the guy's like, "No, no, the pandemic." And this was hilarious
01:50:06Trump or Powell is like, "Oh, okay
01:50:08Just checking because the last time we said inflation was transitory on tariffs, we were right
01:50:14Inflation was transitory, and we think..." Inflation is going to be transitory again, this time on tariffs
01:50:19And then it's like, "Oh, you know, but the pandemic caused inflation." And then Powell's like, "Well, this time's different." Okay, there are a lot of funny memes we can make out of that
01:50:24Let's just be straight about it
01:50:30If soft data weakens, there isn't going to be any inflation
01:50:35You're going to have deflation, in which case Powell will prove to be right that these tariffs are transitory
01:50:40Now, the reality is the tariffs and the uncertainties around tariffs could actually be leading to this massive pull-forward in demand, inappropriately leading the economy to look a lot stronger than it is, and it just crashes down when we get the hard data
01:50:53Between now and June
01:50:54Who knows? But what I've never seen before is JPAL discounting surveys
01:50:58JPAL multiple times said, you know, the relationship between surveys and data isn't very tight
01:51:08We're going to wait for data, like real data, blah blah
01:51:10Really? JPAL now, all of a sudden, discounting the same surveys they used to pay very close attention to
01:51:18H, red flag to me, but okay
01:51:22Uh, national level of layoffs not that high yet
01:51:27That's fine
01:51:32He says, "Hey, yeah, the odds of a recession have gone up based on what forecasters see, but those odds have only gone up from a very low level, so maybe we're not seeing that." Uh, two months ago, the odds of recession were very low
01:51:37The latest bad University of Michigan data is an outlier
01:51:39This It's weird
01:51:42This sort of discounting is unusual
01:51:44Hard data is still pretty solid
01:51:46Soft data reflects uncertainty
01:51:48Uh, we, we slowed
01:51:51You know, we didn't obviously change rates today
01:51:54We slowed the balance sheet runoff
01:51:56To me, them slowing the balance sheet runoff is the reverse vacuum cleaner, like they're sucking up less money from the economy because, frankly, the economy needs the liquidity right now, mostly because I think they see there's a real chance you could fall off the cliff over here
01:52:11Uh, he literally said phrases like "uncertainty is remarkably high." Never seen this sort of phrasing from him before
01:52:19He says, "We're well positioned to move in either direction
01:52:21The hard data is in good shape." But the soft data signals, quote, significant concerns and downside risks
01:52:32So, in other words, he says the incoming data sucks
01:52:39It's not hard data yet, but the leading data really, really sucks
01:52:42And then his response to that is, "But we don't want to get ahead of that." Oh, man
01:52:47Okay, so you want to be behind it again
01:52:48All right
01:52:51Then he's asked about the Doge dividend, and he says, "Of course, I'm not going to speculate on that." So, interesting kind of blow-off, but I mean, if you put all of this together on balance, yes, it was Powell who gave us what we wanted
01:53:03It was Powell who came out swinging and said, "Damn, that Meet Kevin membership is a hell of a good deal
01:53:10Kevin's going to be raising the prices on those soon." Because, you know, that's what we always do
01:53:16Start out with a low price and the price goes up over time
01:53:18But to get access to all of that for less than a buck seventy a day, why would you not sign up for that and at least give it a shot? Especially since you can cancel after, you know, any time if you don't want your subscription to renew
01:53:28But I don't think you will
01:53:30I think you're going to love the Alpha Report and the course member live sessions, the access to the courses and the new content, the trailer, whatever
01:53:34Anyway, the reality here is, to sum this all up, there's a bear inside the Federal Reserve, and JPOW is ignoring the soft data in favor of the hard data
01:53:46We haven't seen this from Powell before, but he gave markets what markets I wanted to hear
01:53:50He gave the dip buyers what they wanted to hear
01:53:55And honestly, I feel responsible for being part of the buy-the-dip generation because, I mean, we got the song "Buy the Dip." I'm just personally not in that mood right now
01:54:06Maybe I'm just broken and I'll be back soon
01:54:09I can't wait to be back to Mr
01:54:10Buy the Dip
01:54:12I really can't
01:54:13I prefer Mr
01:54:15Buy the Dip, but it's just not me right now
01:54:17I don't believe that this is a time to buy the dip
01:54:19I think this is a horrible time to buy equities
01:54:20And I would be trimming my risk on any bounce that we get, and I'd be diversifying into something else
01:54:27That's my take
01:54:30I'm sorry
01:54:32I'm a dirty bear
01:54:34But I think, like, studying Powell for as long as I have and the Federal Reserve, I mean, I've..
01:54:37I've been making videos on Powell since the end of 2017
01:54:38Okay, maybe the beginning of 2018, as we went through the whole last tariff cycle, and I was saying, buy the dip
01:54:41And it was great
01:54:44In 2020, buy the dip
01:54:47You know, at the beginning of 2022, I was like, this is going to suck
01:54:49You might consider selling
01:54:51Markets went down for eight months, nine months in a row
01:54:54And then we talked about the Nike swoosh, and we got the recovery
01:54:56Yeah, this Trump euphoria and this pull-forward have been pretty euphoric, and that's why I think there's a good opportunity to take some money off the table
01:55:04Do I think it's going to continue? No
01:55:05That's my opinion
01:55:06In terms of facts, though, I've never seen Powell this uncommitted to the future and this..
01:55:10Discounting of survey data that we're getting
01:55:13I think it's a red flag
01:55:15That's my take
01:55:17Anyway, thanks so much for watching
01:55:19Really appreciate y'all
01:55:21We'll see you all in the next one, and uh, good luck out there
01:55:23Have a wonderful day
01:55:26Go check out MeetKevin.com, HouseAck.com if you want
01:55:29And, um, really appreciate y'all
01:55:33You know, it's uh, it is nice being able to do these live streams and chat with y'all
01:55:36So, um, good to see you
01:55:38Anyway, we'll see you on the course member live streams and other videos
01:55:44Thanks so much.