Annual Conf Recap: Economic Outlook with Anirban Basu
Sage Policy Group CEO, Anirban Basu, took the stage of the MEDA conference Monday afternoon to deliver a humorous, yet insightful talk on the global, national and regional economic outlook.
His jokes weren’t the only thing making his listeners’ feel light-hearted — his analysis of the current economic performance also offered overwhelmingly positive news.
Despite tariff and trade wars, Basu explained data trends currently point to synchronized global economic growth. According to his studies, optimism and confidence – crucial, self-fulfilling prophecies- are spreading throughout the entire world.
In the United States, we are currently in our 10th year of economic recovery from the 2008 recession. And, with 106 consecutive months of economic expansion under our belt, things are looking steady and strong. Again, Basu sites confidence – especially within consumer spending- as a major catalyst of this growth. “Capital + Confidence = Commerce” And, both small and big businesses are feeling the benefits.
The growth is currently being seen across almost all sectors. Professional and Business Services, and Education and Health Services are currently the top growth areas. Agriculture was listed as the single major industry to have not yet recovered.
Due to the business growth, a huge demand has been created for human capital. In February 2018, there was 6.05 million unfilled job openings – approximately one job open to every unemployed American. With unemployment rates low nationally, Basu did note that the United States will continue to see upward wage pressures.
In a discussion of regional labor and real estate markets, both Baltimore and D.C. were shown to currently be amongst the Top 20 cities recent colleges graduates are most likely to move to in the U.S. However, Basu foreshadowed a future shift from cities in general. Presently the most common age in America is 26 years old (followed by 27 and 25). As this age group ages and begins to start families, Basu predicts the demographic will begin looking at suburban districts. Regionally, he predicts to experience an incredible boom in the outskirts of the DC metro area in the coming years.
For more insight into Basu’s predictions for the economy’s future, visit his website at: https://www.sagepolicy.com/who-we-are/
Here’s a link to the slides from the 2018 MEDA Annual Conference.
