Walker & Dunlop, Released on 7/25/24

On this Walker Webcast, we featured a discussion with one of the world’s most respected economists, Mohamed El-Erian, which took place at Walker & Dunlop’s 2024 Summer Conference. Mohamed touched on Fed policy pivots, inflation, whether or not we can bet on a soft landing, pivotal moments in his career, his return to academia, and his economic outlook for 2025-2026.

Key Points In The Webcast:
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Willy introducees Mohamed El-Erian
03:47 The four main takeaways of the talk
08:16 The problem with forward policy guidance
09:25 Is this a general weakening or a decaying economy?
10:29 The power of the swing states
11:52 Divergence and the economic paradigm
15:09 The impact of politics and geopolitics
16:53 What does the future of the economy look like?
19:35 How to overcome future economic hurdles
23:28 Writing “Permacrisis”: Economic lessons from the pandemic
26:45 Co-authoring with Michael Spence and Gordon Brown
29:03 Practicing humility and studying in the UK
32:13 From academia to economics
34:28 Working in PIMCO and the Argentine debt crisis
36:45 Being in Harvard Management
40:34 The best seat to sit in as an investor
42:01 Why return to academia?
46:56 Should the Fed cut in the next two weeks?
47:33 The importance of not being data-dependent
50:55 When to be concerned about U.S. debt
52:13 Is being the reserve currency enough?
55:19 Which transforming sector should be focused on?
57:25 Final outlook for 2025-2026

Mohamed El-Erian is the President of Queens College, Cambridge and the Chief Economic Adviser of Allianz, a multinational financial services company. He is the former CEO and co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO, a global investment firm and one of the world’s largest bond funds in the world. Dr. El-Erian also served as a member of the faculty of Harvard Business School. Before joining PIMCO, Dr. El-Erian was a managing director at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in London and before that, he spent 15 years at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. His latest book is Permacrisis: A Plan to Fix a Fractured World.

  federal reserve, global economy, inflation, recession, us economy