As a member of Wilmington Trust’s Investment Committee, Luke develops forecasts of the U.S. and international economies, as well as researches emerging issues to support and enhance the firm’s investment strategy. Luke is also responsible for communicating the economic outlook and investment strategy to clients and the public.
Prior to joining Wilmington Trust in 2015, Luke was Officer and Economic Advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Earlier in his career, Luke worked as a senior economist at IHS Global Insight and as an economist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Luke holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Economics from Temple University, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and History from James Madison University. He is an former adjunct faculty member at Temple University and formerly served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Economic Association. In addition, Luke is President of the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics, a chapter of the National Association for Business Economics.
September 21, 2017 — As we had anticipated for several months, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve announced the start of “normalization” of its balance sheet following the meeting this week. This means committee members believe they can and should start to reduce the overall size of the Fed’s balance sheet,
August 29, 2017— The topic of immigration is frequently in the news though typically with a focus on illegal immigration and the politically charged issues of a wall on the southern border, deportations, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, to name a few. We took note recently when two senators, Tom Cotton
July 28, 2017— The initial estimate of GDP growth for 2Q 2017 was solid at 2.6%—not as strong as we and others expected, but certainly strong enough to confirm the weak first quarter was not indicative of a weakening economy. As we discussed at the time, 1Q was an odd combination of very weak consumer
