Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Monday, March 10th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. Our top story so far.

The White House may have forgotten what a real recession looks like, according to one economist, but the financial markets are on full

alert for a slowdown. Stock and bond yields are tumbling again as the prospect of a soft landing for

the U.S. economy looks further away amid on and off again tariff announcements and the potential

impact of mass government layoffs. The S&P 500 is off 2%, and the NASDAQ is down 3.5%. Both are testing lows not seen since September.

Dario Perkins, economist at T.S. Lombard, says, both Scott Besson and Elon Musk have said it might be

necessary to inflict some pain on the U.S. economy in 2025, in the hope that it will emerge stronger

from any short-term downturn. They've said activity is being

inflated by government spending, and perhaps a dose of detox can force public debt onto a more

sustainable trajectory. This is fueled talk of a best-in-put in U.S. bonds, not equities, and is amplified

talk of a potential recession, and that sort of thinking is risky, Perkins adds.

Perhaps the new U.S. administration has forgotten what a real recession is like.

There hasn't been a real U.S. recession in 17 years, and the fake COVID-19 downturn

may have given them an inflated sense of omnipotence.

The U.S. rebounded quickly from the pandemic and returned to full employment without

any long-term scars, but that is only because, one, the recession was largely man-made, the result of

lockdowns, and two, officials deployed the biggest fiscal and monetary policy response

since World War II, he added. In the bond market, the 10-year treasury yield is back down

near 4.2 percent and just 30 basis points above the two-year yield.

Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Schwab, noted,

it looks like the bond market has decided to bypass short-term inflation concerns of trade

...