What Will Cause the Next Recession? A Look at the 3 Most Likely Possibilities
The expansion is nine years old. An ill-timed end of fiscal stimulus, a corporate debt bubble and the trade war are the things that could most easily end it.
But at the same time, mainstream macroeconomic models have the economic lift from tax cuts fading sometime between 2020 and 2022. That means the Fed could be raising interest rates to slow the economy just as tax policy is also working to slow the economy.
Both affect the economy with unpredictable lags, so it could prove hard for the Fed to set policies that can prevent both overheating in 2019 and 2020 and a downturn in 2021 and 2022.
.. Ben Bernanke put it more colorfully at a conference in June. The stimulative benefit of the tax cut “is going to hit the economy in a big way this year and the next year,” he said. “And then in 2020, Wile E. Coyote is going to go off the cliff.”
.. Corporations have loaded up on debt over the last decade, spurred by low interest rates and the opportunity to increase returns for shareholders.
.. The rise in debt loads overseas, especially in emerging markets, is even greater
.. Essentially, businesses have been in a sweet spot for years, in which profits have gradually risen while interest rates have stayed low by historical measures. If either of those trends were to change, many companies with higher debt burdens might struggle to pay their bills and be at risk of bankruptcy.
.. The 2020 train wreck narrative could intersect with the corporate debt boom. If inflation were to get out of control and the Fed raised interest rates sharply, companies that can handle their debt payments at today’s low interest rates might become more strained. Moreover, with federal deficits on track to rise in the years ahead, the federal government’s borrowing needs could crowd out private borrowing, which would result in higher interest rates and even more challenges for indebted companies