Livin’ La Vida Bidenomics! US Conforming Mortgage Rate Up 161% Under Biden, Home Prices UP 26%, Real Median Weekly Earnings DOWN -5%

We are livin’ la vida Bidenomics!

The 30-year conforming mortgage rate is currently 7.23%, up 161% under Biden and Bidenomics (code for massive Federal spending on green initiatives that go to large Democrat donors and Ukrainian oligarchs). Meanwhile, M2 Money supply is up 9.4% under Biden.

At the same time. home prices are UP 26% under Biden while Real Median Weekly Earnings are DOWN -5%.

On a sad note, it looks like The Federal government is starting to rattle its Covid saber just in time for the 2024 Presidential election. Odds are the US will ramp up online voting, early voting, etc. Think of John Fetterman (aka, Walter White’s twin brother) and the Pennsylvania voting experience.

Team Biden!

Bidenomics, BRICS And US Weakness

The US has a bad case of failed leadership and misguided economic policies.

Joe Biden is an incredibly weak President. I am not talking about his age or his deteriorating mental faculties. I am talking about ordering his attorney general to indict his chief political opponent, Donald Trump. How does the world interpret this weakness? BADLY.

The US has gone off the rails in terms of printing money, particularly since COVID struck and money printing went wild.

Under Biden’s Reign of Error and the US reckless money printing, more countries are abandoning King Dollar (based of fiat currency) and joining BRICS. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and a host of countries joining like Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, UAE, etc.

Now, the rest of the world is still stuck on the US Dollar as reserve currency … for now. But as Biden gets weaker and weaker, watch more countries join BRICs.

According to Reuters, there are over 40 countries that have expressed interest in joining BRICS. A smaller group of 16 countries have actually applied for membership, though, and this list includes Algeria, Cuba, Indonesia, Palestine, and Vietnam. Pretty soon, under Biden’s crazy leadership, we may be the last man standing in using the US Dollar as reserve currency.

Then we have the other shoe dropping with Bidenomics.

Joe Biden, along with most of the media and other Democrats believe in bigger government, higher taxes, and massive regulations.

As soon as Biden took office, he set out to destroy industries that produce reasonably priced energy. He focused tremendous effort on deficit spending and borrowing to hand out “government goodies” to buy votes; recipients of this government largesse, in large part, included debt-saddled students, the green mafia, and leftist activists.

When Biden took office, inflation was under 2%, despite COVID and supply chain disruptions; shortly after, it skyrocketed to over 9%. Now inflation increases are “down” but prices remain exceptionally high compared to pre-Biden.

For example, crude oil prices, which affect almost everything and are used in over 6,000 products, are roughly double what they were when Biden took over.

President Trump focused on reduced regulations and energy independence, and implemented lower tax rates, all moves that greatly helped the American people. In contrast, Biden focuses on ensuring bureaucrats rapidly increase regulations which raises costs for everyday Americans; he’s waging economic war against us. Very few of Biden’s regulations go through Congress. From the White House archives:

Between FY 2017 and FY 2019, the Trump Administration has cut nearly eight regulations for every new, significant regulation….

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimates that this pro-growth approach to Federal regulation will raise real incomes by upwards of $3,100 per household per year.

Here are some recent reports of how well Biden policies are working:

Leading economic indicators have fallen for sixteen straight monthsMaybe that is why people think the economy is moving in the wrong direction?

The current cost-of-living crisis is a manufactured one. As inflation rose, the Federal Reserve was forced to raise interest rates, which saw fewer people move. The cycle is very understandable, as simply explained in this one headline, “Housing Crunch: Home Sales Fall To Six Month Low…But Prices Rise Anyway”.

Parcel volumes are dropping by so much, freight pilots are “worried” about job security.

People are running up credit card debt and defaulting on car loans because of high inflation, and because their real wages haven’t been able to sustain them. Now, even more are falling behind on their payments. From CNN:

More Americans are failing to make payments on their credit cards and auto loans, another sign of rising financial pressure on consumers.

New credit card and auto loan delinquencies have now surpassed pre-Covid levels, according to a Wednesday report issued by Moody’s Investors Service.

After years of promoting and subsidizing electric cars, they represent around 6% of total sales, and demand is clearly slowing. It wasn’t that long ago that well-to-do people were buying these electric toys so quickly that they were placed on waiting lists; now, inventories are building because they are too impractical and expensive:

Auto News understands that there is currently a 103-day supply of unsold EVs in the United States. While it did not specify how many units are sitting on dealership lots, it says there is a higher supply of unsold EVs than any other automotive segment, except those in the ultra-luxury and high-end luxury segments with supplies also reaching over 100 days.

So what is Biden’s solution? Force people to buy them.

Here are some simple economics questions for the media and other Democrats:

Does flooding the U.S with illegals help or hurt housing availability and affordability?

Will the intentional destruction of oil and coal companies help or hurt the middle class and the poor?

Yet, the media and other Democrats brag that Biden’s economic policies are great, and when the public gives Biden poor marks, they say that we just don’t understand, and we’re not willing to get behind a candidate if they fail to make us feel “warm and fuzzy.”

Are journalists really that unaware?

Of course, they always sought to destroy Trump as his policies, even as poverty sank to record lows amongst minorities, because they don’t really care about anything but big government. According to Census data:

In 2019, the poverty rate for the United States was 10.5%, the lowest since estimates were first released for 1959.

Poverty rates declined between 2018 and 2019 for all major race and Hispanic origin groups.

Two of these groups, Blacks and Hispanics, reached historic lows in their poverty rates in 2019.

Results and facts haven’t mattered to the complicit leftist media for a long time.

And perhaps the worst mistake Biden made (amongst his laundry list of horrible mistakes, [Afghanistan retreat, not showing up to E Palestine Ohio, Bidenomics that is a payoff to green donors and BIG corporate interests, an embarrasing visit to Maui two weeks after the fire, indicting his leading political opponent, ….) is the appointment of the WORST Federal Reserve Chair (Janet Yellen) as Treasury Secretary.

Household Essentials Cost Far More Under Bidenomics! Gasoline Prices Up 72%, Rent Of Primary Residence Up 16%, Food At Home Up 20% Under Biden! (30Y Mortgage Rate UP 163% Under “Middle Class Joe”)

Middle class Joe my ^%&!

Joe Biden will always be remembered for lying about never raising taxes on households making under $400,000. Inflation is a permanent tax, mostly on those making under $400,000 per year. And household essentials are up substantially under Biden: gasoline prices are up 72%, rent CPI of Primary Residence is up 16%, and food at home CPI is up 20%! That is a HUGE tax on the middle class.

When mainstream economists and politicians cite “improvements” to the inflation problem in the US in recent months, what they are commonly referencing are changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  However, the CPI is not a measure of total inflation, rather, it is a median snapshot of prices at a particular point and time.  True inflation is cumulative – A 10% increase one year and a 5% increase the next year is not a win, it means that you are now paying 15% more on average for everything you buy in the span of only two years.   

When CPI falls this does not mean that prices on goods and services are going down, it only indicates that prices are rising slower than they were the month or the year before.

Another misconception about CPI is that it measures the inflation rate accurately for regular consumers on common purchases.  In reality, the CPI represents mean average price rate increase for a vast basket of goods; over 94,000 items and services with over 200 separate categories.  Most of these items and services you will never use or rarely purchase in the span of a year.  In other words, inflation declines in uncommon goods can dilute the numbers, making it seem like inflation is dropping while prices on daily necessities continue to spike.  

The CPI is weighted according to consumer spending patterns, which is where the calculations can be “adjusted” to a certain extent in an arbitrary manner.  Then there is outright government manipulation through various means.  As we witnessed recently with the Biden Administration’s claims that “Bidenomics” has defeated the inflation threat, what these reports don’t mention is that Biden has been dumping US strategic oil reserves on the market for the past year.  And since energy prices effect the inflation of so many other categories, Biden has artificially manipulated the CPI down using one key resource.  

Now that his ability to dump oil reserves has ended, CPI will rise once again along with energy prices.

The point is, it’s impossible to get a sense of the real damage from inflation without looking at the cumulative inflation in necessities (the goods and services that people are required to purchase on a regular basis to live day to day).  If we throw out the CPI distraction and look at common necessities since 2020, the economic picture is far more bleak.  

Overall food prices have soared by 25%-30% in only three years (again, this means that you are now paying 30% more this year for food than you were paying at the beginning of 2020). Chicken is up from $3 per pound to $4 per pound.  Beef is up from $3.50 to $6 per pound.  Corn is up from $3.50 per pound to $4.70 per pound.  Wheat is up from $5 per pound to $7 per pound.  In 2019 the average American household was spending $8100 on food annually; with a 30% increase, in 2023 Americans will be spending at least $10,500 per household.          

By the end of 2019, the average rental price of a single family home was around $1450 per month.  This year the price is around $2000 per month.  At the beginning of 2020, the median cost of a home was $320,000; by 2023 the price skyrocketed to an average of $416,000.  

For gasoline, the price in early 2020 was around $2.50 per gallon.  The price has fluctuated dramatically due to Biden’s manipulation of the market using strategic reserves, but still remains high today at $3.80 per gallon.  

The cost of electricity has risen swiftly, holding steady around .13 cents per kilowatt hour for a decade, then spiking to at least .17 cents per kilowatt hour by 2023.

Remember, most of these costs are static and are difficult to reduce through household spending cuts.  These are not items that are easily removed from a monthly budget and the expenditures add up to considerable pressure on consumer accounts.  This is probably why around 74% of the public in polls say that the economy is getting worse, not better.  It’s because government statistics are not highlighting the true inflationary crisis.

When we look at the cumulative climb of prices in necessities since before the inflation crisis officially began, the truth is that Americans now have to increase their wages by at least 25%-30% on average to maintain the same standard of living they had three years ago.  This is a disaster not seen since the stagflationary event of the 1970s and early 1980s.  If you have a strange feeling like your bank account is being rapidly drained in recent months, that’s because it is.    

And the 30-year mortgage rate is up 163% under Middle Class Joe.

Thrill Is Gone … From Bidenomics! US Durable Goods Orders Fall -15.23% From June To July While Fed M2 Money Grew 12.7% (Turning Back On The Money Machine!)

The Thrill Is Gone … from Bidenomics.

July durable goods [blue] new orders plummet, recording the worst month since C19 in April 2020. Durable goods fell on a MoM basis by -5.2%, versus -4% consensus estimate. Durable goods ex-transportation [orange] still rose on a MoM basis by +0.5%, perhaps highlighting the weakness in durable goods orders.

Ex-transportation, durable goods order rose slighlty in July by 0.5%.

But according to The Fed of St Louis, durable goods new orders were down -15.525% from June to July (MoM) while M2 Money printing growth rose 12.7% MoM.

The KC Fed’s symosium in Jackson Hole WYO is underway and The Fed’s money machine is firingg up again. Here is the evil spirit of Statism speaking at Jackson Hole.

Bidenomics! US Payrolls Were Likely 306,000 Lower Than Previously Estimated (July Jobs Growth Slowed To 2.2% YoY As M2 Money Growth Slowed To -3.7% YoY)

  • Preliminary benchmark revision smaller than some had projected
  • Biggest payrolls adjustment in transportation and warehousing

Are you surprised that the Biden Administration has been lying about job creation?? Not really since Biden compulsively lies about everything. Including his corruption.

US job growth was probably less robust in the year through March than previously reported, according to government data released Wednesday.

The number of workers on payrolls will likely be revised down by 306,000 for March of this year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ preliminary benchmark revision.

Even without the revision, job growth has slowed to 2.2% YoY in July as M2 Money growth slowed to -3.7% YoY.

Let see what our Overlords say at the Jackson Hole Fed symposium.

Burning Down The Housing Market! Mortgage Demand Decreased in Weekly Survey Purchase Applications “Lowest Level Since April 1995”

The Talking Heads said it best. Bidenomics is burning down the housing market. Bidenomincs (or trying to recover from Yellenomics) is responisble for interest rates rising to flight inflation and the collapse of mortgage lending. And she was … Janet Yellen.

Mortgage demand (applications) decreased 4.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 18, 2023.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 4.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent from the previous week and was 35 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 30 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The spread betweenn Bankrate’s 30 year rate at 7.62% and the effective rate on mortgage debt outstanding at 3.595% has exploded as mortgage rates jump.

Today’s mortgage rates are up to 7.49%. OMG!

Bidenomics (code for making large donors wealthier and the middle class getting the boot) and catch-up for Yellenomics (rates too low for too long), and Powell are helping to burn down the housing market.

Not Always Sunny! Philly Fed Non-Manufacturing Survey SCREAMS Stagflation (Powell And Fed Acholytes Descend On Jackson Hole Wyoming)

It’s NOT always sunny in Philadelphia. Particularly when the Philly Fed non-manufacturing survey screams stagflation (a nauseating combination of economic slowdown and inflation).

After a positive surprise in July, Philly Fed’s non-manufacturing survey slumped back into contraction in August (from +1.4 to -13.1). Additionally, while respondents continue to expect a growth over the next 6 months, that optimism is fading rapidly

Source: Bloomberg

On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, the Philly Fed Services survey plunged to -20.0 – practically its lowest level since the COVID lockdowns…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood it’s even uglier with stagflationary impulses rearing their ugly heads.

Price indicator readings suggest continued increases in prices for inputs and the firms’ own goods and services.

The prices paid index increased 7 points to 46.2 this month. More than 50 percent of the firms reported increases in input prices. Regarding prices for the firms’ own goods and services, the prices received index rose from 7.8 to 14.6.

At the same time the indexes for sales/revenues and new orders both recorded negative readings this month

Source: Bloomberg

Is the ‘Services’ side of the economy finally catching down to the reality of the ‘Manufacturing’ side as savings run dry?

Now that The Fed and Fed Chair Powell are meeting at Jackson Hole WYO for the annual symposium, here is a video of Powell (Green Man) dancing with symposium attendees.

Charts The Fed Needs To See For Jackson Hole Symposium, But Will Ignore (The Fed’s Has A Line On YOU!)

Yes, The Fed has a line on you! And will likely keep raising rates as inflation stays elevated. This means higher mortgage rates unless China slips into a deflation doom loop.

Thanks in part to The Fed, housing affordability is at the lowest level since the 1980s.

And we are seeing tail volatility in the US Treasury futures.

Then we have consumers being tapped out.

Despite retail sales (reported on Tuesday) crushing it (a 1% increase for the control group in July after a 0.5% increase in June), there is a narrative that the consumer is getting tapped out.

Fastest Ever Rate of Increase in Credit Card Debt!!

Credit card debt has been rising at what seems like an alarming rate. To cope with Bidenflation.

Credit Card Delinquencies Gapping Higher!

This chart seems almost scary because it shows a rapid rise in delinquencies. While not quite “parabolic” it has increased by almost 50% in a little over a year! However, 0.8% to 1.15% seems a lot less scary than saying it has increased by 50% (which is why I tune out whenever anyone talks about credit spread moves in percentage terms).

Not only is credit card debt rising at an alarming rate, it is also coming just as delinquencies spike higher!

The Consumer is Normalizing

Let’s revisit the prior two charts but use a different time horizon.

Credit Card Debt Remains Below Trend

Credit card debt rose at a steady pace from 2013 until late 2019. Then COVID, stimulus, work from home, and supply chain issues all seemed to coalesce into an amazing drop in credit card debt. While we can question whether credit card debt should have been rising at the rate that it was before COVID (and whether it was sustainable or not), we should just accept that it was. Maybe population growth has changed (or it was some other factor), but if you “strip out” the COVID phenomenon, we are basically back to trend. I do think that credit card balances are an issue, but it is an issue that we seem to have dealt with in the past.

On credit cards, I completely ignore any impact from Fed hikes because credit card interest rates have always been very high relative to any other rate. What drives credit card balances doesn’t seem to be a thoughtful analysis of rates. It has always been (at least to some degree) about instant gratification.

Bottom line is that while the trend may not be sustainable, the recent rise just brings us back to trend, which takes some of the sting out of the fact that the consumer is in dire trouble.

Delinquencies are Below the 5 and 10-Year Averages!

So, delinquencies aren’t even back to pre-COVID levels. This data series averaged 1.5% for the 5 years prior to April 2020, and was 2.1% for the 10-year period before COVID (and let’s not even think about where it was post GFC).

I’m not all warm and fuzzy about the consumer, but I’m not alarmed either.

Auto Loans

Auto loans are a bit trickier. From the consumer’s point of view, they tend to be at a fixed rate and many were entered into when rates were low. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, the average maturity of auto loans extended in recent years allowing consumers to lock in low rates for longer (hopefully the lenders hedged their rate exposure on those auto loans).

Used Auto Prices are Receding

Used car prices are declining from record highs. That may pose problems to lenders who calculated too much residual value on loans and leases to consumers who thought that we were in a brave new world where even used cars went up in value.

Having said that, the prices for used cars remain robust and my understanding is that it is still extremely difficult to buy the most popular new models (and they often fetch a premium to NAV). Nothing like in the heyday of the supply chain issues, but something that should “normalize” over time.

Auto dealers benefited from a lack of inventory, and I will be curious to see if they can retain their sales with low levels of inventory and (ultimately) pass some of those efficiencies through to the consumer.

With autos being such an important part of the economy, it is something that I watch, but much like the story we heard in credit cards, a lot of the negatives that I’m reading about are simply a “normalization” which may be healthy for generating not just a soft landing, but a sustainable soft landing. However, the “slowing” is something to think about.

The Excess Savings Lie

I will spare you the agony of going through bank deposit charts on a short-term and long-term basis and just jump straight to the long-term chart. I used purple and orange arrows because I generally reserve green for good and red for bad and I’m not sure that these are “good” or “bad” deviations from trend.

Bank Deposits are Falling! But to Levels Still Around Trend.

I have argued that the “excess” in bank savings was never going to be put into the stock market (one of the bull cases, which may even still be floating around). I also think that there is a lot more than meets the eye about why there is so much in “excess” savings. Sure, without a doubt, COVID boosted savings. One thing that I “forgot” to mention earlier (or maybe I saved it on purpose) about the good things that happened to consumers during COVID is that there were many moratoriums placed on various types of debt service (i.e., student loans).

We can all agree that some amount of cash stayed in savings accounts because while savings accounts earned 0%, so did everything else. As people realized that they could earn more on their money market funds, some amount was going to be taken out of savings accounts paying little interest. Though, I do have to say that I was at the local bank branch a few weeks ago taking out money from the ATM and someone before me had left a receipt showing $99k in their bank account. I immediately thought “who does that?”, but there are obviously people who want bank accounts up to the FDIC limit.

My view has been (and will continue to be) that many people “earmarked” money that they would have to pay in the future and set it aside in a savings account. If you know moratoriums will end (and let’s not forget, these loans typically accrued interest during these periods), then it would be prudent to set aside some money for when those payments got turned back on.

If my theory is correct, you should see bank deposits decline faster as these moratoriums end and the money that was “earmarked” for certain payments is withdrawn to make those payments. Please see American Ingenuity.
Not great for the economy or spending, but is “normalization” really bad?

Generative AI

My intention is to use generative AI to help me do a report on “outliers”. This would include warning signs or positive things that the market may or may not be missing. After about an hour or so of brutally failed attempts this weekend, I gave up. I try to write these T-Reports with an estimate of how long it will take and how long the report will be but had absolutely zero clarity on whether the ChatGPT process would work. Hopefully I can make some interesting progress on the report early this week or I will declare it a failure. In any case, was Google trends (using generative AI) all you needed to buy or sell stocks successfully this year?

No one really cared about AI until February of this year. Yes, there were some searches, but very few. The Nasdaq 100 bounced in January, stagnated for a bit, and then started to do well from April until late July. It has sold off steadily since then. While not matching the trends in “generative AI” search, it might have been the best tool to use. The searches have stabilized and what will be interesting to see is if they peaked or if they increase as we end the summer and people are back at work fulltime across the board.

We will be focusing more on AI as Academy’s Advisory Board has grown the number of advisors with significant experience in the area and who are active today in the ongoing development of cyber and AI.

China

I promised that we’d get back to China, but for now I only want to highlight one chart. And, ironically, it is not a lie. It is the truth, and it is logical.

China’s Holdings of U.S. Treasuries

I highlight three periods.

  • Post GFC. When the U.S. economy was in tatters and much of the world was struggling, China was able to (or was willing to) accumulate more and more Treasuries. There is a lot of chatter about the decoupling of our economy from China’s right now, which is logical and will continue (the friction is real between the two nations and not getting better). I did, however, find it interesting that China accumulated so many Treasuries in the aftermath of the GFC. Prior to the GFC, the trend seemed obvious (U.S. was growing and buying stuff from China).
  • The tariffs sparked some discussion of potential retaliation from China, including the possibility that they would dump Treasuries. There was some decline in their holdings, but that could just as easily have been COVID related.
  • Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the decision to freeze Russia’s dollar holdings, there has been a steady decline in China’s Treasury holdings.
    • Some of the decline is due to the weakness in China’s economy and their potential need to prop up the property market (and maybe even those overly exposed to the “shadow banking system”).
    • Not only did we freeze Russia’s holdings (which tells me that we can do it again), but we have also been going after China on a myriad of fronts (most notably high tech, but increasingly for rare earths and critical minerals).
    • Our own debt ceiling issues and ratings may not help, but I’d be shocked if that entered into China’s calculus.
    • What I cannot tell from this chart is if it is an indication that China is successfully generating trade globally in yuan and has less need for dollars. That would fit my “shifting from made in China to made by China” view to a tee, but I’d be lying if I said that I could support that on this chart! Maybe generative AI will help me find evidence supporting that theory in places that I haven’t thought to look.

One thing that I think supports Treasury market bears is that there will be less of a global interest in holding Treasuries (with China leading the way).

Jobs

So much to do here and with or without AI, I will add more charts related to jobs later this week.

We have covered some of these areas in the past such as discrepancies in JOLTS between job openings and hires and the Establishment versus Household gaps. The fact that all these reports come in with declining response rates is another issue. It is difficult (mathematically) to accept the continuity of a data series when the response rate is declining without a serious investigation into why the response rate might be declining.

While we haven’t discussed it recently, the annual revisions always seem to dramatically reduce the published data for the prior year (but weirdly it doesn’t seem to have a market impact).

Today, I just bring up one chart because I find it fascinating in the lies, damned lies, and statistics theme.

The “Almost” Unbelievable Pattern of New Company Formation

The birth/death model is an estimate of jobs created or lost as new companies are formed or go out of business (or at least close enough for our purposes).

I challenge you to find any other jobs data that looks this “perfect”. It is a beautiful sawtooth pattern that looks almost uninterrupted! For most jobs data, the COVID period makes long-term charts almost impossible to review. The job losses and subsequent job gains are so large relative to any prior periods (or current periods) that these charts look like straight lines on either side of COVID.

Yet this chart seems almost perfect. This is a symmetrical “beauty”, but it is just a “plug”. It is something that clearly relies heavily on seasonality and I find it almost impossible to believe that this is so “predictable” (which makes me wonder how many other “plugs” or adjustments might be meaningless after the COVID shock). Meaningless, but this data is still used to determine policy and drive markets.

Inflation

I couldn’t be bothered. Sure, I will dig into this more, but I really don’t think that despite some Fed jawboning, anything (other than a large/sustained change in inflation) will do much to the Fed’s decision (which means that it will do little for bond markets). I am prepared to be wrong on this and will delve into it this week (with help hopefully from friends at ChatGPT), but inflation is low on my radar screen. However, there is one exception – will companies be able to grow earnings in the current inflation environment where it seems to be more difficult to push through final product price increases while input costs remain elevated?

Bottom Line

Seems like we are back to an “inflection” point where the debate between soft landing and “something less fun” is back on the table. The lag effect is regaining credibility (it always should have).

There are cases to be made for a variety of economic outcomes as we head into September and that is exciting from my seat!

I do think that we are in a period where price action drives what narratives we see: continued downward pressure on stocks will bring out more and more negative reports. One more short squeeze and suddenly AI, soft landing, and praise for Powell is all that we will see.

The US Treasury 10Y yield is now the highest post 2011 singaling further Fed rate increases.

Weak Hurricane Hilary Performance Blamed On Russian Interference!

Lowriding! US Personal Savings Lower Than Pre-Covid As Core Inflation Still Hurts At 4.70% YoY (Large Bank Loan Volumes Shrank Last Week As Deposit Outflows Re-Accelerated)

US personal savings are being exhausted as The Fed raises rates to fight inflation. I call this phenomenon “low riding” where consumers are being punished by The Federal Reserve and Biden Administration.

Meanwhile, large bank loan volumes are shrinking. With money-market fund assets hitting new highs, and banks’ usage of The Fed’s emergency funds facility at record highs, we wonder how much longer The Fed can keep the dream of rising deposits alive (after last week’s massive NSA inflows).

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, The Fed says that total deposits dropped $11BN last week (the first decline in 4 weeks). We also note that the prior week’s inflow was revised higher…

Source: Bloomberg

After last week’s enormous $121BN NSA deposits inflow, last week saw an $11BN outflow (on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis)…

Source: Bloomberg

The gap between SA deposits and NSA deposits remains more manageable (until the next time The Fed decides to fiddle)…

The divergence between money-market fund assets and bank deposits remains extreme…

Source: Bloomberg

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, Small Banks saw $5.6BN deposit inflows last week while Large Banks suffered $28.7BN outflows (with foreign bank inflows of $12BN making up the difference)…

Source: Bloomberg

And so, for a nice change, everything is tidy with domestic US banks seeing deposit outflows on an SA and NSA basis…

Source: Bloomberg

On the other side of the ledger, small banks continued to pump out loans (+$3.56BN, sixth straight week of increases), while large banks saw a $7.4BN contraction in loan volumes

Source: Bloomberg

So, if The Fed’s data is to be believed, Small banks are ‘winning’ – deposit inflows and making loans; while large banks are leaking – deposit outflows and shrinking loans. All while Treasury prices tumble, stressing small bank balance sheets.

Just remember, the sitting US President Joe Biden goes under several psuedonyms like Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware in his email conversations about Ukraine with his son Hunter. But don’t forget another pseudonym: The Reverend Kane from Poltergeist 2!

Hellzapoppin Under Bidenomics! Conforming 30-year Mortgage Rate UP 163.5% (Federal Debt UP 19% Or >$5 Trillion Under Biden While Unfunded Liabilities Are Now At $193 TRILLION)

Hellzapoppin under Bidenomics! And it isn’t a musical, but a tragedy.

Between The Federal Reserve’s outrageous overreaction to Covid (printing like there was no tomorrow), and Biden’s massive spending spree (lots of moldy (green) spending, we have see horrid inflation.

And The Fed trying (sort of) to combat inflation, we see that 30-year CONFORMING mortgage rate for 80% LTV or lower credit borrowers is up 163.5% under Bidenomics.

Under Bidenomics, public debt (owed by the US Treasury) is up 19% or greater than $5 triillion. Now wonder Biden throws are billions like it is water.

I seriously want the Biden Administration (and almost every member of Congress) why we are sending billions of dollars to Ukraine while barely giving Maui fire victims barely anything. The US is already $33 trillion in debt with >$193 trillion in unfunded liabilites. I want to ask Biden and Congress HOW the US is going to afford $193 trillion in unfunded liabilites?

Of course, NO ONE wants to face the reality of the disastrous fiscal poliicies of Washington DC politicians. Not McConnell, not McCarthy, not Schumer and especially not Billions Biden. Remember 10% for The Big Guy where Democrats argue that is meaningless. Or mini-me, Robert Reich (Clinton’s labor secretary) who claimed that the US economy is the best he has ever seen! Yes, Reich, for the top 1%. Of couse, no one will ask fools like Reich how we will pay for $33 trillion in debt and the $193 trillion in unfunded liabilies … and fund a war in Ukreiane in seeming perpetuity.

My good friend Jesse has an excellent write-up on the upcoming KC Federal Reserve annual retreat at Jackson Hole, WYO. This retreat is just the US banking version of The World Economic Forum and Klaus Schwab. Know-it-all unelected elitists controlling our lives.