During this 30+ minute interview, Jason first asks Danielle about the state of the US consumer?
They discuss how credit card debt is on the rise among US consumers while jobs are being lost in many key states that Trump won during the 2016 election. The US consumer who did not benefit from all of these asset bubbles seems to not be doing well despite Trump's claims of the US economy being the "greatest economy ever." Real world economic data does not seem to support Trump's claims.
Jason also asks Danielle about how the US corporate bond market great so such lofty levels in size? Danielle talks about previous Fed Chairman and Janet Yellen refusing to raise interest rates.
According to Danielle's research there's now around $6.5 trillion dollars in near junk or junk bonds. Jerome Powell and the Fed are clearly worried about credit markets freezing up and that was probably one of the major reasons why Powell decided to reverse course in December.
Jason Burack is an investor, entrepreneur, financial historian, Austrian School economist, and contrarian. Jason co-founded the startup financial education company Wall St for Main St, LLC, to try to help the people of Main Street by teaching them the knowledge, skills, research methods, and investing expertise of Wall Street. You can also find Jason's work at his blog website at www.jasonburack.com.
Danielle DiMartino Booth spent nine years as an advisor to Richard W. Fisher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Danielle left the Fed in 2015 to found Money Strong, LLC, an economic consulting firm and launched a weekly economic newsletter She is the author of Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America. DiMartino Booth began her career in New York at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Credit Suisse, where she worked fixed income and the public and private equity markets. Danielle earned her BBA as a College of Business Scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.