{"id":58966,"date":"2026-02-23T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/feds-waller-warns-of-jobless-growth-as-geopolitical-tensions-drive-treasury-yields-to-days-lows\/58966\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:08:27","slug":"feds-waller-warns-of-jobless-growth-as-geopolitical-tensions-drive-treasury-yields-to-days-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/feds-waller-warns-of-jobless-growth-as-geopolitical-tensions-drive-treasury-yields-to-days-lows\/58966\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed\u2019s Waller Warns of \u2018Jobless Growth\u2019 as Geopolitical Tensions Drive Treasury Yields to Day\u2019s Lows"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller<\/strong> warned that the U.S. economy is experiencing an unprecedented period of growth without job creation, labeling a &quot;zero job growth&quot; environment as unstable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. Treasury yields<\/strong> retreated on Monday, with the <strong>10-year yield<\/strong> hitting a day\u2019s low of <strong>4.05%<\/strong> following news of staff evacuations at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.<\/li>\n<li><strong>OpenAI<\/strong> launched its &quot;Frontier Alliances&quot; with consulting giants including Accenture (<a href=\"\/stock\/ACN\">ACN<\/a>), McKinsey, and BCG to accelerate the deployment of enterprise-grade AI agents.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Geopolitical risks<\/strong> escalated as the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from Lebanon, citing &quot;precautionary measures&quot; amid regional instability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Energy constraints<\/strong> have replaced compute power as the primary bottleneck for AI development, according to Waller, who urged for broader infrastructure investment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Waller Highlights Labor Market Disconnect<\/h2>\n<p>In a speech at the <strong>National Association for Business Economics (NABE)<\/strong> on Monday, Federal Reserve Governor <strong>Christopher Waller<\/strong> expressed deep concern over a shifting labor landscape. Waller noted that he has &quot;never seen the economy growing like this without jobs,&quot; pointing to data from the past year that suggests labor demand is falling faster than supply. He emphasized that while productivity gains are a positive sign, a regime of zero job growth does not represent a &quot;stable employment environment.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Waller also touched upon the <strong>neutral rate of interest<\/strong>, suggesting that if productivity continues to rise, the neutral rate is likely rising alongside it. He defended the Fed\u2019s current operational framework, calling the idea of returning to a &quot;scarce reserves&quot; regime &quot;inefficient&quot; and even &quot;stupid.&quot; His comments suggest a cautious but open stance toward future rate adjustments, depending on whether upcoming February employment data confirms a trend of cooling demand.<\/p>\n<h2>Geopolitical Tensions Trigger Flight to Safety<\/h2>\n<p>Global markets reacted sharply to reports that the <strong>U.S. Embassy in Beirut<\/strong> has begun evacuating non-essential personnel. A State Department official confirmed the move as a &quot;precautionary measure&quot; following a buildup of naval assets in the region and heightened security concerns. This development immediately bolstered demand for safe-haven assets, pushing the <strong>10-year Treasury yield<\/strong> down to <strong>4.05%<\/strong>, its lowest level of the day.<\/p>\n<p>The geopolitical uncertainty coincides with ongoing friction in <strong>EU-US trade relations<\/strong>. EU Vice President <strong>Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong> stated on Monday that full respect for existing trade deals is &quot;paramount&quot; as the bloc seeks reassurances from Washington. These tensions have left bond markets &quot;dazed,&quot; as investors weigh the dual impact of potential new tariffs and the risk of an extended confrontation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<h2>OpenAI Scales Enterprise Reach via &quot;Frontier Alliances&quot;<\/h2>\n<p>On the corporate front, <strong>OpenAI<\/strong> is moving to solidify its dominance in the enterprise sector by forming &quot;Frontier Alliances&quot; with major consulting firms. The partnership includes Accenture (<a href=\"\/stock\/ACN\">ACN<\/a>), <strong>Boston Consulting Group (BCG)<\/strong>, <strong>Capgemini<\/strong>, and <strong>McKinsey &amp; Company<\/strong>. The initiative is designed to help large-scale organizations move beyond AI pilots and into full production using OpenAI\u2019s &quot;Frontier&quot; platform.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, Accenture (<a href=\"\/stock\/ACN\">ACN<\/a>) and Capgemini will focus on the technical implementation and lifecycle support of AI agents, while McKinsey and BCG will lead high-level strategy and change management. This move comes as <strong>OpenAI<\/strong> faces increasing competition from other AI labs that have established similar consulting ties to bridge the gap between model intelligence and real-world business utility.<\/p>\n<h2>AI Infrastructure Faces Energy Bottleneck<\/h2>\n<p>The rapid expansion of AI is hitting a physical limit: the power grid. Waller identified <strong>energy<\/strong> as the emerging bottleneck for the AI industry, noting that the massive electricity requirements for data centers are straining resources in many parts of the country. He expressed a desire to see more investment directed toward energy infrastructure and diversified technology sectors rather than just construction for data centers.<\/p>\n<p>Market analysts noted that as gigawatt-scale &quot;AI factories&quot; become more common, the constraint is no longer just the availability of high-end chips. Instead, the ability to secure reliable, long-term power purchase agreements and manage local grid reliability has become the core strategic challenge for the next phase of the AI supercycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller warned that the U.S. economy is experiencing an unprecedented period of growth without [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[3710,4544,4824,5317,6052,8249,12698,12723,17574],"class_list":["post-58966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-federal-reserve","tag-ai-infrastructure","tag-geopolitics","tag-openai","tag-us-treasuries","tag-christopher-waller","tag-accenture-acn-stock-acn","tag-nabe","tag-bcg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}