Exhibit 61: Past Federal Reserve Tightening Cycles Core CPI (%YoY):
Trough to Number Peak Change of Rate in Rates (%) Increases
Months from Start of Tightening Until:
Six Months Prior to Tightening
At Start of Tightening
Recession
S&P 500 Peak
Total Returns from Start of Tightening to Market Peak (%)
Average When Tightening Was Associated With a Recession
5.7
11
4.2
4.0
30
24*
Average When Tightening Was Not Associated With a Recession
2.7
8
3.4
3.0
-
-
36 -
Overall Average
4.5
10
3.9
3.6
-
-
-
Overall Median
3.3
9
3.3
2.8
-
-
-
March 2022
4.0
?
June 2022
4.9**
?
Equivalent Core CPI if Tightening Cycle Starts in:
Data as of December 31, 2021. Source: Investment Strategy Group, Bloomberg. * Median time from the start of a hiking cycle to the peak of the S&P 500 is 25 months. ** Reflects core CPI inflation in November 2021, the most recent reading available as of publication.
away all blue-collar jobs and the US would become a nation of hamburger flippers.
also looks at the spread between different parts of the Treasury yield curve and currently stands at 8%
Risk of Recession
The greatest risk of a recession in the US and most other countries in the world is posed by an unexpected worsening of the pandemic, caused by new variants that result in much greater disease severity than Delta or Omicron, as discussed earlier. Otherwise, we assign a 10% probability to a recession in the US and the global economy this year. Since 1980, the US economy has been in recession 11% of the time, compared to 14% of the time in the entire post-WWII period. The probability of recession when the economy is in expansion—as is the case now—is 13%, so we have a slightly lower probability than the unconditional odds based on history. We rely on a series of models, listed below, to estimate the probability of recessions. All point toward a low probability: • Our team’s recession scorecard, which includes some leading economic indicators and National Bureau of Economic Research criteria for dating business cycles • Our team’s recession dashboard based on a series of deteriorating economic indicators • The New York Federal Reserve recession probability Treasury yield curve spread model, which currently stands at 7.98% • The Engstrom-Sharpe model, developed by members of the Federal Reserve Board, that Outlook
Investment Strategy Group
While we have assigned 10% to the probability of recession, we are also cognizant of the fact that many models have predicted recessions that never occurred and others have missed recessions that did occur. We therefore examine the three factors that have caused recessions in the past: • Aggressive tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve in response to higher-thananticipated inflation. • Imbalances in the economy that create an unstable economic backdrop. • Exogenous shocks—by definition not predictable—such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the Arab oil embargo in 1973. One such potential shock is a much greater deterioration of this pandemic. Other shocks are geopolitical, most likely emanating from Russia or Iran as discussed further below. Federal Reserve Tightening: There have been 15 Federal Reserve tightening cycles in the post-WWII period. Contrary to received wisdom, not all tightening cycles have led to a recession. Only nine, or 60%, of the cycles did so. Of the last four cycles, only one resulted in a recession: the tightening cycle between June 2003 and September 2006. The cycles that led to recessions can be differentiated from those that did not based on a greater number of hikes and larger increases 43
