Why a soft landing is still possible

John Woods, CFO of Citizens Financial Group, joins TheStreet to explain why he thinks a soft landing is still possible.

Transcript

00:00And where are you finding optimism or where you seem or where you're feeling the most optimistic

00:06when it comes to the economy? Yeah, you know, when it comes to the economy, I think that

00:10the real question is whether we're going to end up with a Goldilocks soft landing.

00:15And a year ago, we had some concerns. Frankly, if I go back to the beginning of 2023,

00:21most of us thought we were going to have a, you know, a recession by the end of 23.

00:26You know, if you check your watch, it's September of 24. No recession. And recession odds have been

00:33falling. That's that's really great. I mean, the ability to have rates come down without

00:39unemployment rising too much, you know, really feels like a possibility, which, you know,

00:46a year, year and a half ago, we would have said was unlikely. So I'm excited to be able to say

00:52that soft landing is still a possibility for us as the Fed is bringing rates down. And if we can

00:58bring rates down, not have unemployment, which is one of the Fed has a dual mandate, you know,

01:04price stability and full employment, you know, for the labor market. If we can see rates come down

01:11and ensure that unemployment doesn't rise too much and keep inflation under control, that'll be

01:17that'll be great for everybody. And there's a real possibility we'll see that as we get into 2025.

01:22It is it is really positive to see a more normalized yield curve, where we have the two

01:29year rate about 20 basis points below the 10 year the 10 year rate that's that's very encouraging

01:35and is reflective of a more normalized growth environment. And so that's something that I'm

01:43looking forward to seeing as we get into 2025.