Toby Howell

speaker

33,421 appearances 346 recordings 5 series first heard Oct 2023 last heard yesterday

Toby Howell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 205 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 49.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Morning Brew Daily · Fed Raises Rates for the First Time in 3yrs & What Happened to Ed Sheeran’s Tour · 17 Sep 2026 podcast

took office in 2025 with decade-high interest rates. voice-verified

The economy has held up well under the strain of those higher rates, but there are significantly more questions now, namely a war in the Middle East putting pressure on prices. voice-verified

At the beginning of the year, oil was $60 a barrel and markets were pricing in three rate cuts. voice-verified

Now, oil prices are above $100 a barrel and the Fed's dot plot is showing the possibility of more hikes to come. voice-verified

It is amazing how quickly things can change. voice-verified

So why is the Fed hiking now? voice-verified

Well, it's essentially made no progress towards one of its core mandates, which is keeping inflation around its 2% target. voice-verified

It has been above that since mid-2025. voice-verified

Last year's rate cuts were in insurance actually against the other part of the Fed's mandate. voice-verified

They didn't want the labor market to break down, but that downturn in the labor market never really fully materialized. voice-verified

Unemployment has remained pretty low. voice-verified

Hiring has remained strong. voice-verified

So voice-verified

Essentially, they've looked at the economy and said it can take higher rates for now. voice-verified

And then on the inflation side of things, it has been very complicated because there are three big things that have happened. voice-verified

One, tariffs, the tariff regime rolled out, which kind of throws sand into the gears of the global economy and just raises prices dramatically. voice-verified

Two, the Iran war broke out and caused an energy shock. voice-verified

That's probably the biggest thing. voice-verified

And then actually three, the enormous AI investment boom that has been propping up the economy has actually been working against the Fed a little bit because it is adding this big supply and this big injection of activity to the economy, causing it to run a little bit hotter than voice-verified

than it would have the AI boom not happen. voice-verified

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