Allspring's VanCronkhite: If Fed can't hit inflation bullseye, it'll change the target

Bryant VanCronkhite, senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, says that with the economy at full-employment levels, he expects the Federal Reserve to shift its focus back to inflation, but he says the central bank is boxed in when it comes to making moves. As a result, he thinks new Fed chair Kevin Warsh will rely on new data to re-define inflation measures and come away with a new target higher than the traditional 2% level, which won't make consumers feel better but will calm a market worried about what the Fed might do in trying to cut inflation.  VanCronkhite says he sees the artificial-intelligence evolution affecting different market-cap zones wildly differently and discusses how he prefers to play A.I. across all sectors and more.

Yelena Maleyev, senior economist at KPMG Economics discusses the October 2026 Outlook Survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, which found that growth and inflation expectations are up, and that economists expect one more interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year, before rate moves are put on hold through 2027.  Maleyev — who chairs the NABE Outlook Survey Committee — said that, on average, the economists see a tightening of monetary policy, but not a weak economy, they see the Fed as not reaching its inflation targets until at least 2028, but at least some of that is that the artificial intelligence build-out will spur both growth and inflation.

Beth Kobliner, author of the 1990s best-selling book "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance For Your Twenties and Thirties," discusses her revised and updated book and how personal finance has changed over three decades, and whether technological advancements have helped or hurt the youngest wage-earners. She notes how "frictionless finance" tends to make money more mindless, and makes it easier for consumers to dig a hole from which it's a struggle to climb out. As a result, among the updates to her book was guidance on avoiding the effortless spend and being more mindful of where the money is going and how it gets there.