Travelers along the road to national and local economic recovery have passed a few milestones on the route, a certified financial planner told a business crowd in east Vancouver on Friday.
But uncertainty is still around the corner, said Chris Butler, a senior vice president and trust director of Riverview Asset Management Corp., a division of Riverview Community Bank. Butler addressed about 50 members and guests of the East Vancouver Business Association during its monthly breakfast meeting, held at Riverview’s east Vancouver branch on Northeast 162nd Avenue.
Butler highlighted as encouraging developments the nation’s improving jobs market, a local increase in home sales, a prolonged low-interest-rate climate and President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve. But Butler, an avid motorcyclist, also likened the year-end economy to a road bike about to turn a potentially treacherous corner. Staying too far to the left, he said, puts the motorcycle in the path of oncoming traffic, while the gravelly area on the right-side shoulder is equally dangerous.
“We’ve been going around a dangerous corner for five years,” Butler said.
He does not expect the nation’s economic policy to change drastically when Ben Bernanke, one of the most influential Fed chairmen in history, steps down at the end of his second term on Jan. 31. Butler expects Bernanke’s nominated replacement, Yellen, to maintain the status quo.
