Quentin Webb
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Political Crisis in Germany as Merz Fails to Win First Vote as Chancellor
The really big question is, does the Fed decide to kind of hold off on rate cuts for a bit longer than it might just because it wants to kind of stay the course on inflation? Or does it start to cut a little bit more preemptively in which case it's kind of trying to underpin growth, but it runs the risk of exacerbating any inflationary pressures that are starting to build in the system.
WSJ What’s News
Political Crisis in Germany as Merz Fails to Win First Vote as Chancellor
And Quinton says that making sense of the economic outlook isn't just tricky for the Fed. Corporate America is struggling to get its head around the tariffs. You know, it's not clear what tariffs will remain in place for the long term, which tariffs might be rolled back after negotiations with trading partners.
WSJ What’s News
Political Crisis in Germany as Merz Fails to Win First Vote as Chancellor
And so, for example, Ford and Mattel, the company behind Barbie, have both suspended their outlooks for the year. That's effectively sort of saying we don't know right now what we can guide you to. Other companies, in some cases, some of the airlines have done this, have laid out alternate sets of guidelines. So they're sort of given outlooks for different economic scenarios.
WSJ What’s News
Political Crisis in Germany as Merz Fails to Win First Vote as Chancellor
So that really points to the kind of extraordinary level of economic uncertainty at the moment that corporate America and investors face.