Loading...
Most Recent Stories

Jeremy Grantham’s Depressing Prospects for US Growth

No commentary necessary here.  To me, this reads like one big “this time is different” piece.  Yes, I really think the balance sheet recession is a “this time is different” scenario, but as they say, this too shall pass….Some snippets via GMO:

“The U.S. GDP growth rate that we have become accustomed to for over a hundred years – in excess of 3% a year – is not just hiding behind temporary setbacks. It is gone forever. Yet most business people (and the Fed) assume that economic growth will recover to its old rates.”

Going forward, GDP growth (conventionally measured) for the U.S. is likely to be about only 1.4% a year,
and adjusted growth about 0.9%.

The bottom line for U.S. real growth, according to our forecast, is 0.9% a year through 2030, decreasing to 0.4% from 2030 to 2050 (see table on Page 16). This is all done presuming no unexpected disasters, but also no heroics, just normal “muddling through.”

Investors should be wary of a Fed whose policy is premised on the idea that 3% growth for the U.S. is normal. Remember, it is led by a guy who couldn’t see a 1-in-1200-year housing bubble! Keeping rates down until productivity surges above its last 30-year average or until American fertility rates leap upwards could be a very long wait!

Fun times.

Comments are closed.