KPMG Economics

Economic Coordinates

Explore analysis of key data indicators, such as job creation and the labor market, consumer spending, inflation, investment, housing and monetary policy. These combined data points are indicators of the overall health of the economy.

• “This couldn’t have come at a worse time”: Exporters brace for port strike delays | Marketplace.org
  The longer the strike goes on, storing all of those agricultural products starts getting pretty costly, said Meagan Schoenberger, senior economist at KPMG. “Because of the propensity for disease, for pests, things like that, so you don’t want to store these things for very long,” she said.
  October 3, 2024 | Marketplace.org

• Fed more tolerant now of higher inflation: Yardeni strategist | yahoo!finance
  "Components like food and energy are, of course, outside of the Fed's purview. Monetary policy can't support growing more food, creating more supply and energy markets. So that's why we tend to look at the core measure, which has been sticky, a lot of it due to shelter inflation," Yelena Maleyev says. "But we know shelter inflation is on its way down just based on how lagged the shelter inflation indicator inside the index is."
  October 10, 2024 | Yahoo

• Over 1 Million Parents Lose Work Hours Over Child Care | Parents
  If you're a working parent, you've no doubt felt the burden of managing child care with your job one way or another. A new index report from KPMG, a Big Four accounting firm, shows the reality of the U.S. child care crisis. The report estimates that 1.2 to 1.5 million workers, 90% of whom are moms, have to shorten working hours or miss work each month because of a lack of affordable child care or insufficient availability.
  October 28, 2024 | Parents

• The Fed’s Preferred Inflation Gauge Cooled Overall in September | The New York Times
  Still, “this is an economy that the Fed should feel good about,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. The report also showed that consumers had been spending at a rapid clip in September, even after an adjustment for inflation, a sign that they remained “remarkably resilient.”
  October 31, 2024 | New York Times

• Global CEOs Confront New Era With Trump Win, Risk of Tariffs | Bloomberg
  Chief among the topics: How they’re preparing for rising protectionism and sweeping tariffs on 60% of imports from China and 20% from the rest of the world, which economists say could lead to higher prices on everything from microwaves to cars and push companies to reset manufacturing plans and other investments. Businesses leaders are already navigating multiple wars, shipping snafus and climate-related disruptions — all of which have the potential to upend their supply chains. “We’re in a very different environment than we were pre-pandemic because the supply chain is at much more risk to shocks,” KPMG chief economist and managing director Diane Swonk said. Added tariffs may be used as “a tool to deal with other issues, but there is a price associated with it,” she said. “The actual cost is born by mostly U.S. consumers, and companies that can’t pass on those increased costs have to take the hit in margins.”
  November 6, 2024 | Bloomberg

• Jerome Powell Is Back in Trump’s World and About to Feel the Heat | Bloomberg
  Federal Reserve chair Powell will need to reassure global investors that the Fed can manage the impact of a second Trump term — perhaps accompanied by a Republican sweep of Congress — that’s already shifting expectations for the path of monetary policy. For now, the Fed can keep its focus on jobs and prices. And even once the new administration takes office, it could take time for new policies to get enacted by the president or voted on by Congress. “Policy will affect the Fed as we move into 2025, but they can only react to it after it’s been done,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “They’ll be underscoring that anything as a result of the election will really depend on how policy evolves and how that affects the economy.” 
  November 7, 2024 | Bloomberg