Category Archives: recession

A Contrarian View on Recession Probabilities: Are We Out of the Woods?

As I have observed before, the explanation for why we have not yet seen a recession’s onset in the data yet could be one of the following: (1) the model based on historical correlations is no longer applicable (DGP has changed), (2) we were using the wrong model, (3) the recession is yet to come, but has not yet shown up in the data. In addition, it could be the model was right, and in a probabilistic world, there’s never a sure thing.

Continue reading

What Does the Term Spread Predict? IP, GDP, Coincident Index?

It’s commonplace to correlate term spreads with future economic activity measured one way or thSo, while other. Recessions in the US do seem to be predictable on the basis of term spreads; but recessions are a binary variable insofar as the NBER, ECRI, and other institutions define it. What about growth as a continuous variable — be it growth of GDP or industrial production?

Continue reading