This week the Federal Reserve dropped short-term interest rates by a quarter-point. Chairman Jerome Powell surprisingly said a one-quarter point December cut is not a done deal.

He blamed the softening labor market and rising inflation for caution ahead.

I went knocking on the door of several reputable California economists to ask what they’re seeing in their crystal balls.

They all used words including uncertainty, tariffs, worry, higher-end consumer, lower-end consumer and federal government shutdown.

Christopher Thornberg, the founding partner of Beacon Economics, started off with a bombshell prediction. Pointing to very scary asset bubbles like cryptocurrency and the $1.6 trillion of “hot money” going into AI and the stock market in general, he sees a market collapse.

“We are scre

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