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 28, 2018— As was fully expected and fully priced in, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates again on September 26, and signaled that it expects to keep doing so over the next couple of years. The federal funds rate range increase of 25 basis points, or bps (0.25%), brought its target up to 2.00%–2.25%.
July 13, 2018— On July 10, the Trump administration announced a new round of potential tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods imported from China—on the heels of the first round of tariffs which went into effect on July 6. As my colleague, Senior Investment Strategist Meghan Shue, wrote last month in ”U.S.-China Trade Tensions
March 22, 2018 — In his first meeting as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jay Powell found himself presiding over a group of officials who are becoming increasingly confident in the outlook for growth and inflation, and by extension are increasingly confident of their plans to raise
