Economic Market Update

Economic Risks and Opportunities Ahead for Supply Chains

BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS®, CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® The global economy has also been slowing, but the U.S. economy continues to post solid growth. Our U.S. economic outlook is modestly positive, although we expect a slowing in U.S. growth, U.S. job gains and U.S. inflation this year. Meanwhile, European, Chinese and emerging market growth have been under ...

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Material Handling and Economic Outlook for 2024

BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS®, CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® The year 2023 was one of twists and turns. There were significant tech layoffs, a banking crisis, slowing inflation, Fed rate hikes, elevated geopolitical risks and AI obsession. While some of these events were fortunate breakthroughs, a few took the world by surprise in not-so-welcome ways. This naturally leads ...

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Easing Inflation and Slowing Growth Seen as 2023 Closes

BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS, CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® The economic outlook for the end of 2023 is mixed. Global growth data has weakened, while data in the United States has remained resilient. Global GDP growth and manufacturing have slowed. But the U.S. labor market has been relatively resilient even though U.S. manufacturing has slowed. The U.S. economy ...

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Outlook Uncertainty: Can the U.S. Labor Market Keep the Economy Afloat?

Economic Market Analysis BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS AND CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® High interest rates threaten the outlook In the wake of significant interest rate increases, the economic outlook includes high uncertainty. This is true across economies globally, but it is especially true in the United States, where the Fed has worked hard raising rates to ...

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Economic Outlook Hinges on Inflation

BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESIDENT OF PRESTIGE ECONOMICS AND CHAIRMAN OF THE FUTURIST INSTITUTE® Everything hinges on inflation The Fed has a dual mandate to keep the economy at full employment and prices low and stable. While jobs were strong in 2022, inflation has been worryingly high. At the end of 2022, unemployment returned to an impressive pre-COVID low of 3.5%, while ...

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Economic, Inflation and Material Handling Outlook for 2023

Economic Market Analysis BY JASON SCHENKER PRESIDENT, PRESTIGE ECONOMICS, CHAIRMAN, FUTURIST INSTITUTE® A year of shifting forces The year ahead is one of significant risk but also opportunity. While backlogs of unfilled orders have been a hindrance to revenue since mid-2020, those same backlogs could help keep manufacturing and material handling activity somewhat buffered from the persistent rise in interest ...

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The Economy of What Lingers: Inflation, Debt and COVID

The outbreak of the COVID pandemic has created chaos over the past two years. But some of the after-effects continue to linger for the economy. Looking to the months ahead, addressing these lingering risks will be critical for the U.S. economy—and the outlook for material handling.

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The Return to Trend: A High-Stakes Policy Balancing Act

Economic Market Analysis BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESTIGE ECONOMICS To say that 2021 was a strong year for U.S. and global economic growth would be quite an understatement. Coming out of the 2020 COVID-19 recession, growth in 2021 reflected a massive rebound as stimulative fiscal policies and accommodative monetary policies pushed the U.S. economy to post some of the strongest real ...

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Planning for Full Recovery

In planning ahead for 2022, there are many reasons to be optimistic. After all, there have been trend improvements in the economy and financial markets in 2021, following the painful COVID hit in 2020.

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