Forget the rest of the world—US needs to get selfish: Economists
America's "divorce" from the rest of the world is doing the country's economy a favor, economists Paul Hickey and Rob Martin told CNBC on Thursday.
"It's not that there aren't leakages, it's not that it doesn't matter what happens in the rest of the world," but after China's market turbulence and the European debt crisis, the U.S. focusing within engenders some major benefits, said Martin, senior U.S. economist at Barclays.
Martin told "Squawk Box" that with jobs growing steadily with over 200,000 added per month and the U.S. hitting record highs at 1.8 million jobs created in 2016, the economy is good without much influence from overseas.
Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, said events like Brexit and Deutsche Bank's recent stock volatility, occurring in supposedly "safe" developed markets, causes a flow of capital into more stable markets like the United States.
"We have all the problems outside of the U.S., we have slow, steady growth in the U.S., and that's causing a premium on U.S. assets," he added.
Anticipation is building ahead of a possible Fed interest rate hike in December, but Martin said some members of the have proven exceedingly dovish, avoiding a rate hike until they see obvious harm to the U.S. economic system.
Hickey said investors are also anticipating "seeing stronger economic data, stronger economic growth, and stronger earnings data," causing a shift into more "growth-orientated" sectors of the market, like technology.
But Martin said the United States "could use some certainty in policy and a little bit more steadiness at the helm."