"The Pulse" -- #90 / Inflation, Interest Rates & More

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Solomon Partners, Croft & Bender, Brentwood Capital Advisors, and Q Advisors opened their summer 2026 apps. 81 firms are actively recruiting for summer 2026 positions

• As you can see, these are bunch of ‘no-name’ firms with the exception of SP. Subscribers to our ‘Premium Database’ can see that most name-brand firms have closed applications for the summer 2026 recruiting season with offers being handed out across the Street (I’m sure you’re seeing plenty of semi-cringe LinkedIn posts). Effectively, the summer 2026 recruiting is 75% complete and right on track with our predictions from August! Over the next few months, we will begin our FT 2026 coverage

• If you need some interview support or just need a place to vent, check out our Coaching Program: Coaching for banking, consulting, and buyside recruiting | The Pulse. 95%+ of those coached for the summer 2025 recruiting season received offers!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• Solomon Partners: Solid MM boutique (SA 2026)

• Croft & Bender: Small boutique (SA 2026)

• Brentwood Capital Advisors: Healthcare-focused boutique (SA 2026)

• Q Advisors: Tech-focused boutique (SA 2026)

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 300+ banks/consulting/buyside firms! Gain an edge over everyone else by not having to spend countless hours tracking applications and deadlines.

Consulting:

Where We’re At:

• 58 SA 2025 applications have been released along with 71 FT 2025 apps. This process is essentially complete with the exception of smaller/niche firms.

• 2026 Recruiting is in the very early days. There are currently 4 open applications.

SA 2025 released apps:

• None

FT 2025 released apps:

• Wavestone - Management Consulting Analyst (FT 2025)

• Resolution Economics -Consultant (FT 2025)

SA 2026 released apps:

• None

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Barings, Sands Capital Management, Starwood, and 2 others opened their SA 2026 applications. Currently 68 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Barings: $400bn AUM investment manager (SA 2026)

• Sands Capital Management: Equity research position at NOVA-based HF (SA 2026)

• Starwood Capital: $100bn+ RE-focused asset manager, REPE acquisitions intern (SA 2026)

• Orion Group: MM PE (SA 2026)

• Renovus: LMM PE (SA 2026)

The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:

• Interview tips for specific companies

• Interview prep material

• Applications and deadlines linked so that you can apply with one click

• Insider information about the application process

• Professionals to network with

• Buyside deadlines, interview prep, and people to network with for the sweatiest of students

We send the updated dataset every week with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 90th update today.

Students we have been helping have already landed roles at Blackstone, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Citi, and Solomon.

To get access to the database and the weekly updates, you pay a one-time fee of $45 Credit Card / Debit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com—30% off) that grants you annual access to the updated database (please reach out for additional payment options). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $45.

This is a small investment for a huge payout when you secure your dream offer!

Premium Database——>Database for banking, consulting and buyside roles | The Pulse 

Market Update:

Damn eggs are expensive!

You might have gone grocery shopping this week at your nearest Trader Joe’s only to find they had no eggs. At least that’s what happened to me. I had to go to a convenience store up the street and cough up $10.99 for a dozen eggs.

For context, egg prices have risen more than 15% since December. That’s fucking annoying and we have the Avian Flu to thank.

Eggs are just one good contributing to the increase in consumer prices and therefore, the consumer price index. Inflation numbers came out last week and they weren’t great. The CPI rose at 0.5% month over month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%.

Not only is this above the 2% FED target, but given Trump’s tariff agenda inflation isn’t likely to move materially lower. Currently, the unemployment rate is 4% and the economy is still growing at a healthy clip.

Given inflation data, what does this mean for interest rates?

Last week, Jerome Powell indicated that the FED is going to keep rates steady and is operating via a data-dependent approach. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case for the next few FED meetings unless we see a significant weakening of the economy.

Powell also emphasized that the neutral interest rate (the equilibrium rate) would likely be significantly higher than the low, pre-pandemic rate.

However, what Jerome Powell and the FED board think is best for the economy is not what Trump thinks is best.

Trump has been urging the FED to cut rates to stimulate the economy. Powell is very clear that the role of the Federal Reserve is independent of other branches of government. In other words, he doesn't give a shit what Trump wants and is focused on two things: getting the inflation rate back to the 2% target and keeping unemployment low.

In light of that, Trump and Scott Bessent, the new Treasury Secretary, want to stimulate the economy through a different lever: bringing down the yield on the 10-year treasury note, the interest rate set by financial markets.

Bond prices and yields are inversely correlated, so lowering yields increases the price of bonds. Remember that the 10-year influences interest rates throughout the economy. Car loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc. are all anchored to the 10-year.

When the yield of the 10-year falls, consumers can borrow at more affordable rates and therefore they often increase consumption. This is exactly what Trump wants: a piping-hot economy powered by frothy consumers.

The best way to lower Treasury yields is to be less desperate for government funding. Think back to your first econ class. If the government needs less money, it issues fewer bonds (i.e. decrease in supply). If the supply of bonds decreases then the price increases and yields decline.

This is where DOGE comes in to slash budgets and decrease the federal deficit. Thus, lessening the need for government financing.

Whether Trump, DOGE, and Bessent can pull this off remains to be seen but there is a careful balance that needs to be struck between economic growth and inflation.

Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.

Private Equity Value Creation

Private equity firms have a bunch of different tools in their shed to enhance value on the companies they buy. Below, I walk through a few of them--some are more financial engineering and others are more organic in nature.

Nevertheless, they create value

-Multiple Expansion: Sell a company for a greater multiple than what you bought it for ✅ 

-Dividend Recap: Borrow more debt to pay yourself a dividend ✅ 

-Operational Synergies: Cut costs or expand revenue to enhance value ✅ 

-Debt Repayment: Rapidly repay debt to grow the equity value by the time of exit ✅ 

-Convert Cash Interest to PIK: Retain intermittent FCF by converting interest to PIK ✅ 

-Tuck-in Acquisitions: Buy similar businesses to corner a market and control pricing ✅ 

-Divestiture: Sell unprofitable, unrelated business units to grow the core business (not really a PE play tbh) ✅

Going Forward:

Are you starting your banking / consulting FT job this summer?

We are carefully rolling out our Buyside Associate prep solutions. This will be the best tool to land a job in PE, PC, HF, or VC / GE after your analyst stint. Please shoot us an email @[email protected], if you’d like to be a part of our first cohort—services will be 100% free.

Please reach out to us with any questions about recruiting or if you’re interested in meeting the team! ([email protected])

We are happy to chat, review resumes, or help set up a coaching session

Check us out on LinkedIn (The Pulse) and Instagram (ThePulse)

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“The Pulse” #90

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