2015: The Year the Real Economy Outperforms Stocks?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Ethan Harris takes on the popular critique of extraordinary Fed assistance – that low rates and QE merely enrich the top income earners (who own investments) and widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Harris notes that it is typically in the second half of the recovery that this trend reverses itself – the early gains in corporate profitability give way to a labor class that regains the ability to negotiate higher wages as the pool of available workers shrinks and offered salaries become competitive.