Heather Long

I think it's a lot murkier towards once you get to 2027.

I think Fed Chair Powell was right that the labor market looks like it's stabilizing.

Now, that is not what most people want to hear.

They want to see it reviving.

We're still in a very anemic job market.

But we're not seeing layoffs pick up, which is really encouraging.

And so I would say we're in this stable but frustrated consumer era.

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Hi, Kai.

Hey, Kai.

Well, you're right.

There's two big factors at play.

Number one is the one we always talk about, and that's what's the consumer doing.

And that's where you see the K-shape economy with the top 20% really driving the spending growth right now and everybody else kind of hanging on or treading water.

And then the other big one is the AI economy.

And it was just staggering this week as all these big tech companies said they're going to invest $600 billion in AI this year, which is greater than the budget that the entire Japanese government or German government spends on their countries.

I mean, that's how mind bogglingly large this is.