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Latest Issue

Recession: Are We There Yet?

By John Mauldin

February 22, 2019

Dramatic Weakening
Missing Inversion
No Credit Stress
Not Going Global
The Rest of the Story
“I’m an American!”—Pat Caddell—RIP
Dallas, Athens, and Houston

An old joke says economists predicted 15 of the last 10 recessions. In other words, they’re frequently wrong and often too pessimistic.

I think it’s not so simple. Every recession prediction is eventually correct; some just get the timing wrong. That’s because, so long as we have a business cycle, a recession is always coming. The only question is when it will strike.

There’s also some dispute about what, exactly, counts as “recession.” The usual definition is two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP. But as I’ve written, GDP itself is a nebulous statistic with substantial margin of error. We can never be quite sure.

My own outlook has been consistent: The current growth phase is getting old and will end as they all do, but we probably have another year or so. That is about as far out as my data reads can actually give us any statistical confidence. Macro events like Federal Reserve error, trade war, ugly Brexit, and others could hasten the decline. But as of now, the US and the developed world seem likely to sustain at least mild growth through 2019.

That doesn’t mean we rest easy. It means we have time to prepare for the worse conditions that we know are coming. How much time? That will be today’s topic as we review some recent analysis.

First, a quick invitation. My personal physician at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Mike Roizen, is holding a private conference call with Chris Wood of Health & Wealth Research. They’ll be discussing the nine supplements Mike says can...

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