Panelists at the Columbian’s 2019 Economic Forecast event all offered a reasonably cheerful short-term assessment of the economy, pointing to a variety of indicators that suggest that even through growth may slow a bit, a recession is not imminent. But the long-term picture was comparatively bleak, highlighting concerns about the impacts of wealth inequality and climate change. The event’s keynote speaker was Jason DeSena Trennert, the chairman and CEO of Strategas Securities, who gave a presentation that he called a “requiem for the ‘new normal,'” referring to a pattern of slower growth that he said tends to take place in the years following a financial crisis. The U.S.