For more than a year the Federal Reserve Board has cited inflation below its targeted 2% level as one justification for maintaining its extraordinarily accommodative monetary stance. As of February, the core inflation rate was 1.1%, based on the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation series, the Fed?s preferred measure of inflation. But there is good reason to question whether the 2% target justifies current policy.

Now is a good time to take stock in the current macro environment from a market perspective. Heres what we think could happen at the end of this year and next year.

Yesterday was the start of a new fiscal year for the U.S. federal government, but failure to agree on a spending plan in time for that deadline left federal coffers short. As a result, a partial government shutdown took effect. Its important to emphasize that this was a partial government shutdown. Many services remain operational, such as our active military, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security and airline travel.

We think this decision prolongs the positive market environment we have seen in both equities and fixed income. With the Fed seemingly a distance away from tapering and raising rates, this could bode well for the risk sectors, where we could see further tightening in credit spreads on both high yield and investment-grade corporate bonds.

We had a little flush of activity in the first quarter, which we believe will lead to much better GDP potentially well over 3% than people anticipated in the beginning of the year. We look at this activity as a little bit of a catch-up, for a couple of reasons.

Last week Chairman Bernanke and the Fed launched another aggressive stimulus program, QE3, saying that they will buy $40 billion in mortgage debt per month and continue to purchase assets in order to boost growth and reduce unemployment. He also announced that the Fed is not likely to raise rates from the current rock bottom lows until at least mid 2015, vs. 2014 as previously stated.

Despite a steady stream of negative headlines and high volatility, markets are holding up pretty well. The broadest measure of the stock market, the S&P 500 Index, is up nearly 13% year-todate through today, August 13, 2012. The NASDAQ is up almost 17%. High yield bonds are up almost 9.7% while investment grade corporate bonds have gained over 7%. Even Europe has managed 7.5%, as measured by the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Index in dollar terms.

Tepid economic growth coupled with weak equity markets over the past few years have driven U.S. investors to the perceived safe haven of fixed income. We believe that fixed income indices may be appropriate as benchmarks, but not as investment strategies.

Inflation should remain well-contained for the next year or two, but a credible plan to cut budget deficits and a return to positive real interest rates will be needed to prevent the bond market from pricing in rising inflation in the medium term. In this environment, the U.S. dollar can continue to strengthen versus other major currencies, and capital markets, especially equity markets, can deliver attractive returns.

GDP growth forecasts of 3 percent to 4 percent could mean gains in credit and equity markets. Higher growth could lead to quicker tightening by the Fed, however, which could depress bond prices, as well as increase discount rates for equity markets. Corporate credit and equity markets should provide strong opportunities in 2010. While inflation is not a threat in the near term, investors should consider incorporating inflation hedges such as bank loans or multi-sector inflation products as tensions grow between fiscal deficits and monetary policy.