Perhaps Joe Biden and Fed Chair Jay Powell are channeling Dean Martin by letting us have it.
Since Obama’s 3rd term as President (aka, Biden’s installation as President on January 20, 2021), mortgage rates have risen 87%, regular gasoline prices have risen 80%, CRB foodstuffs are up 59% and Commodities are up 63%.
And don’t forget about America’s energy life force, WTI Crude Oil. It is UP 123% under Biden.
The Biden Administration and The Federal Reserve together should be called “The Cooler Kings” in that their policies are putting a Big Chill on the mortgage market and equities.
Mortgage rates are skyrocketing thanks to the Federal Reserve.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.27% for the week ending May 5, according to data released by Freddie Mac FMCC, -1.62% on Thursday. That’s up 17 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is equal to one hundredth of a percentage point, or 1% of 1%.
House price growth to wage growth is below the all-time high, but remains above housing bubble levels of 2005-2007.
The Refinitiv Venture Capital Index is down 53% since November ’21 as The Fed cranks up interest rates.
Well, at least commodities are soaring under “The Cooler Kings.” Pretty much everything else is sucking wind.
The question, of course, is whether The Federal Reserve will back off its plans to aggressively raise interest rates in lieu of crashing stock market, venture capital, and possibly home prices.
Trevor Noah was correct. EVERYTHING is more expensive under Biden. And REAL average hourly earnings YoY keeps declining.
REAL average hourly earnings YoY fell further to -3%.
Meanwhile, fertilizer prices, a key ingredient to food costs, is up 262% under Biden.
Today’s jobs report was better than expected, at 428k jobs added (versus 380k expected). Its just too bad Bidenflation is clubbing American workers to economic death.
US labor force participation actually declined in April and struggles to get back to levels pre-Covid and Trump.
Here is the jobs market data for April 2022.
Leisure and hospitality sector still has a way to go after the ill-advised government shutdowns surrounding Covid.
Oddly, there are two job openings for every unemployed person.
Here’s some simple Medusa math for you: negative growth + payroll gains = negative productivity. Negative productivity + high labor costs = very high unit labor costs. That’s not a pretty picture for the economy or for companies, and the Q1 figures were even worse than expected — productivity fell by 7.5%, pushing unit labor costs up by 11.6%. Nasty.
In fact, labor productivity fell to the lowest level since 1947 and President Harry Truman.
Of course, Biden’s green energy policies have led to crushing inflation.
So, after Fed Chair Powell (aka, Jay The Revelator) said yesterday that “No Signs US Economy ‘Vulnerable’ To Recession”, we saw the S&P 500 index dive 1.5% and the 10-year Treasury yield break through the 3% barrier.
Biden’s policies are a Medusa-touch on the economy.
A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly dropped in April to the lowest level since 2020 as growth in orders, production and employment softened.
The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of factory activity fell to 55.4 last month from 57.1, according to data released Monday. The Manufacturing Prices index remained elevated.
As the 10-year Treasury yield tries to breech the 3% barrier.
And as The Fed continues to threaten tightening of their monetary follicies, the S&P 500 index is down 14% since Dec 31, 2021.
And the NASDAQ had it worst monthly loss since 2008.
President Biden (or whoever is pulling his strings) is inflicting a “Medusa Touch” on the US. That is, everything his administration touches turns to stone.
Let’s look at average hourly earnings. Thanks to “progressive” energy policies from Biden, REAL average hourly earnings growth has crashed and burned.
But here is the chart that the Biden Administration touts showing average hourly earnings growth at 5.6% YoY (although I doubt if Jen Psaki would leave out the massive distortion caused by The Federal Reserve’s “Let’s go crazy!” monetary policy.
Another Medusa Touch moment is the reverse repo market. When I wrote about reverse repos before, several people wrote me saying “You don’t understand. This is a temporary problem and will vanish shortly.” However, The Fed’s reverse repo facility has now climbed to an all-time high.
Then we have the disruptive effects of The Federal Reserve deciding for us that mortgage rates are too low and should be higher.
Now look at lithium prices, a key element for electric car batteries. Making the switch from Internal combustion engines to electric motors far more costly.
The list goes on and on.
Suffice it to say, everything the Biden Administration touches turns to stone.
But I wager that the Biden Administration wishes that Hunter Biden’s laptop would turn to stone.
Only an elitist DC bureaucrat like Joe Biden would laugh at inflation that is ruining the lives of millions of Americans.
We all know (except for Biden apparently) that inflation is up 8.5% YoY as measured by the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, the CPI change doesn’t fully capture what is crushing Americans’ pocketbooks. Here is a brief update on where we stand prior to the upcoming Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting on May 4th.
Since Biden was installed as President on January 20, 2021, prices for key commodities have soared. Natural gas futures UP 192%, Regular Gasoline prices UP 73.6%, Commodity Research Bureau Foodstuffs UP 59%, Low sulfur Diesel futures UP 176%.
Since we now have the Biden’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth (actually The Department of Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Board”) which will start censoring free speech. And this post is what could fall under their reign of terror. Or in Biden’s case, reign of error.
Jen Psaki, the President’s talking head, has said that it is Russia and Putin’s fault. So, here are the same prices up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since Biden was installed as President: Natural gas futures UP 82.3%, Regular Gasoline prices UP 80.2%, Commodity Research Bureau Foodstuffs UP 50.1% ,Low sulfur Diesel futures UP 47.7%.
Yikes! So, even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the lethal combination of Biden’s green energy executive orders and The Fed’s continuing monetary stimulypto was deadly for American households.
On a sad note, The Biden Administration is considering cancelling student loan debt as a way to control inflation (?). Of course, cancelling student debt will lead to a surge in consumer spending and even MORE soaring inflation. Biden is suffering from The Medusa Touch. Everything he touches turns to stone.
While The Fed is expected to remove monetary stimulus, don’t expect inflation to return to pre-Biden levels. The anti-fossil fuels edicts from Biden are still in effect. Even if the bottlenecks clear up, Biden and Congress may unleash more Federal spending (although much of Federal spending benefits “Friends and Family” of Biden and Congress, not the American middle class or lower-wage workers).
Not only has The Federal Reserve driven M2 Money Velocity to near historic lows, but now we find out that the Employment Cost Index just rose to a historic high.
Of course, a variety of minimum wage laws have helped drive up employments costs. Don’t tell lawmakers that minimum wage laws lead to higher inflation since they typically deny responsibility for anything. But I can almost picture the 4 Horsemen of the Inflation Apocalypse (Powell, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer) sitting around asking “What we can do to make inflation worse?”
We did see the PCE Deflator YoY rise to 6.6%, the highest since 1982, the highest in 40 years.
Personal spending increased to 1.1% in March, probably panicking buying over further inflation.
A PCE Deflator of 6.60% leads to a Taylor Rule estimate of 9.05% for The Fed Funds Target Rate.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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