It isn’t much of a stretch to claim that the fate of the United States economy and stock market in 2024 – and, maybe, even the November elections – will be determined by the forces arrayed at two consequential meetings held over 4,800km apart.

One was a sales conference on artificial intelligence (AI) that filled a hockey arena in San Jose, California, to the brim, the other a conclave on interest rates, inflation and unemployment at the Federal Reserve’s white marble neoclassical headquarters in Washington.