This helped our economy defy odds last year (chart)

Chart credit Hedgeye
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

Beginning 2023, national pundits, national economists, Oregon economists and even Governor Tina Kotek were talking about a surely anticipated recession in 2023.   It never came, and 2023 became the most off-mark forecast in a long time.

One reason, the U.S. economy over-performed was the fixing of the supply chain crisis which, once fixed, sent prices crashing.

This saved both businesses and consumers a massive amount of savings.

Consumers went on a summer spending binge (still holding on to 2020 stimulus cash in many cases) while businesses decided to empty out existing inventory while ordering fewer items for the future as a cost saving measure to lower cost/maximize profit.

Fresh off this low shipping costs comes a noticeable spike.   This may be influenced by the Middle East shipping attacks.

This show that our economy rests on many volatile factors.