The pandemic turbo-charged a shift to remote work that has changed how we live and work. Every city has experienced this a little differently depending on demographics, local job composition, and flexibility of municipal budgets. In this episode, FHN Financial’s Abby Urtz discusses how the new remote work landscape is impacting cities and the municipal debt market.

In addition to lowering its policy rate at the beginning of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve engaged in Quantitative Easing, meant to lower longer-term interest rates and stabilize the mortgage market. Now that the Fed is aiming to remove accommodation from the economy, it is quietly shrinking the amount of Treasury securities and MBS on its balance sheet while markets focus on the path of the fed funds rate. In this episode, FHN Financial’s Walt Schmidt talks about how to understand MBS as the Fed continues its Quantitative Tightening and nears the end of its tightening cycle.

The low unemployment rate and improving inflation picture suggest a so-called “soft landing” could be on the horizon. Rate-sensitive sectors like tech and housing also seem to give a roadmap for how the economy can come into better balance without a significant increase in the unemployment rate. In this episode, FHN Financial’s Chief Economist Chris Low talks about why he’s skeptical the Fed can bring inflation down to its long-run 2% target without tipping the economy into a recession. Also, we discuss the market implications of this week’s FOMC decision and what the Fed will be looking at before the September meeting. 

There’s been relative calm in the banking sector recently after months of worry that a few regional bank failures in March were the first signs of much larger cracks in the financial system. Banks face ongoing liquidity risks, but the bigger issues in the next year could be in bank profitability and funding mix. In this episode, Gray Bowles, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Strategy with FHN Financial, discusses what he sees as the key risks for the banking sector in the next 6-12 months.