About this episode
In the second annual Market Madness episode of FireSide, the Investment Research team hosts their own version of the Big Dance to assess what they believe will be the most impactful market event for the next quarter. Join host Kara O’Halloran and the members of the investment research team—Lara Rhame, Chief U.S. Economist; Rob Hoffman, Managing Director; and Andrew Korz, Director—as they go through head-to-head matchups and fill out the bracket in real time to determine what the team thinks will move markets the most over the next few months.
Transcript excerpt:
Kara O’Halloran (00:00):
The episode that you are about to hear was recorded prior to the events that transpired around Silicon Valley Bank. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Kara O’Halloran (00:05):
Welcome back to FireSide, a podcast from FS Investments. My name is Kara O’Halloran. I’m a director on our investment research team here, and today is our second annual Market Madness episode. So I am joined by my whole team to go through what we think is going to impact markets the most over the next few months. So I’ve designed a bracket with 16 teams, and we’ll go through head-to-head matchups and fill out the bracket in real time to determine what we think is going to move markets the most over the next few months. So I’m excited to be joined by Lara Rhame, our Chief U.S. Economist; Rob Hoffman, the head of our research team; and Andrew Korz. Thanks all. Thank you all for, for coming in today.
Lara Rhame (00:44):
It’s gonna be great. Yeah, I mean, I won last year, so…
Kara O’Halloran (00:47):
It’s true.
Lara Rhame (00:47):
I’m feeling really confident.
Kara O’Halloran (00:48):
I’m excited to be doing this because if you know where my college basketball loyalties lie, you know that I’m not overly excited for March Madness this year. So at least we have market madness.
Andrew Korz (00:58):
Yeah, and I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope markets have a better year than our Wildcats did.
Kara O’Halloran (01:05):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Kara O’Halloran (01:07):
All right. So, let’s dive right in. We’re going to start with our first matchup in the east region. We have an up or downside surprise in inflation versus corporate credit defaults. So Rob, I’m going to have you walk us through this matchup. What are you watching here?
