The Current State of the U.S. Consumer and the U.S. Economy
Tuesday, May 6th | 8:30 am – 9:30 am
What is the future of the U.S. economy? The U.S. consumer has been remarkably resilient, and all else equal, the economy would likely grow at normal rates of 2% and inflation would return to about 2%. But all else is not equal. Major changes in government policy — immigration, regulation, and taxes and benefits — have the potential to shock the economy. Innovations like AI and GLP-1 medications are already affecting the economy. In this session, using a mix of publicly available data and proprietary panel data on 150,000 representative U.S. households, we will discuss scenarios for the U.S. economy and how to navigate what promises to be a turbulent and transformative period for U.S. consumers.
Session Speaker
Leo Feler, Ph.D.
Chief Economist, Numerator
Leo Feler, Ph.D., is Chief Economist at Numerator, a consumer research firm, and Visiting Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He regularly briefs c-suite executives of Fortune 500 companies on the state of the US consumer and implications of policy changes on consumer behavior and the US economy. Leo research focuses on understanding how consumers react to changing economic conditions and together with economists at the Federal Reserve, he developed a “Better Way of Understanding the US Consumer.” He is featured regularly in popular media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, CNN, NBC News, and CBS News. Leo has been a keynote speaker at several conferences around the world, including presentations with Unilever, Hershey, Coca-Cola, Post Consumer Brands, Reynolds Consumer Products, and many other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.