Q1 US Employment Costs Skyrocket Most In History Helping To Increase Already Soaring Inflation (PCE YoY Rises To 40-year High of 6.60% YoY)

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.

The Federal government and Federal Reserve trying to solve inflation reminds me of Parks and Recreation’s Jerry Gergich trying to celebrate his retirement.

Spot The Loser! Japan’s Yen, China’s Yuan or Russia’s Ruble (Russian Ruble Bounced Back While Yen And Yuan Have Crashed)

I hope America’s foreign policy wizards (Biden, Harris and Blinken) weren’t relying on the Russian Ruble staying pulverized, because the Ruble (relative to King Dollar) has regained all its losses.

On the other hand, the Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan have crashed harder than Biden’s popularity.

Actually, The Atlanta Fed’s flexible price inflation rate is 25%, up from 3.90% Pre-Joe.

Perhaps Biden, Harris and Blinken think Putin is a pasta sauce.

US Real GDP Q1 Goes Negative -1.4% QoQ As Price Growth Hits 8% (It’s Official! The Biden Economy Stinks!)

It’s official! The Biden economy stinks!

US real GDP growth for Q1 slipped into negative territory (-1.4% QoQ) while GDP price growth rose to 8%. So, negative real GDP growth is negative coupled with horrid inflation.

Personal consumption expenditures were below expectations at 2.7%.

Now that the Biden Administration has created an old Soviet Union-style Ministry of Disinformation (called the “Disinformation Governance Board”), I hope that I don’t get censored for reporting that the Biden economy officially stinks.

Good luck to The Federal Reserve in withdrawing the monetary stimulus.

Heartaches In Heartaches! US Q2 Real-time GDP Stumbles To 0.446% As Fed Continues Monetary Stimulypto (What Will Happen When The Fed Pulls The Plug??) March Pending Home Sales Decline -8.90% YoY

Heartaches in heartaches. US GDP growth for Q2 has stumbled to 0.446% as The Fed is launching quantitative tightening (QT) to fight the inflation that they caused in the first place.

According to the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real-time GDP tracker, US GDP growth has stumbled to a meager 0.446%. Despite the massive stimulus from The Federal Reserve and Washington DC’s massive fiscal stimulus.

Biden, Powell and Congress are driving me crazy with inflation/price changes.

No corporate economists, inflation is NOT a good thing.

Pending home sales decline 8.9% in March, another heartache for Americans.

Will The Fed say good bye to its Snake Juice??

Going Down! MBA Mortgage Applications Dive 8.6% WoW, Purchase Apps Decline 7%, Refi Apps Decline 9% As Mortgage Rates Skyrocket (ARM Share Rose 9.4% WoW)

Thanks to The Federal Reserve helping to raise mortgage rates through the roof, mortgage applications are going down.

From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey. Mortgage applications decreased 8.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 22, 2022.

The Refinance Index decreased 9 percent from the previous week and was 71 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 8 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 17 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The percentage of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increase 9.4% from previous week.

Yes, the 30-year mortgage rate is rising extremely fast.

“You’re Going Down” by Jerome Powell and The Constitution Avenue band. President Joe Biden conducting.

US New Home Sales In March Fall -8.6% MoM As Mortgage Rates Jump (Thanks To The Money Kings)

US existing home sales in March were expected to fall -0.6% from February, but they actually fell -8.6%. This is happening at The Federal Reserve is signaling tightening and mortgage rates are rising rapidly.

I think the above chart says it all.

Commodities Versus S&P 500 And The New World Order (Crashing Currencies And Flight To Commodities) The End Of US Dollar Hegemony?

Here is Dvorak’s New World Symphony, an appropriate piece the global turmoil that has taken place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here is the ratio of the S&P 500 index against the Bloomberg Commodity Price Index. This ratio is plotted against The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet of assets. Notice the decline in the Commodity Ratio in 2022, even ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Global currencies, on the other hand, have been really crushed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Japanese Yen, China’s Renminbi and Europe’s Euro relative to the US Dollar are falling due to a variety of reasons. Covid lockdown in China, Japan’s insistence on monetary easing while other Central Banks are tightening and the Euro with Russia threatening nuclear war.

WTI Crude is back to $100 a barrel. Critical metals are down today related to a slowing global economy and wheat is up 2.75%.

Could it be that US Dollar hegemony is nearly over and commodity-backed currencies are the way of the future?

Slippin’ Into Darkness! Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index Plunges To 1.1 As M2 Money “Slows” To 11% YoY (Will The Fed Reinstate Its “Low Rider” Interest Rate Policies?)

Slippin’ into darkness!

M2 Money stock YoY skyrocketed during the Covid mini-recession, peaking at 21% during February of 2021. The Dallas Fed manufacturing outlook grew to 38.1 in March 2021.

However, as M2 Money growth has slowed 11%, the Dallas Fed manufacturing outlook has plunged to near zero.

So, with the economy faltering (and REAL wage growth in negative territory), will The Fed reinstate its “Low Rider” interest rate policies?

The US Treasury 10Y yield is down -12.5 basis points (never a good sign as investors buy Treasuries in a flight to safety).

Crude oil is down below $100 again and is down -5.61% today on … problems everywhere. ALL metals are down.

Cryptos are getting clobbered today as well.

Between Biden’s “Going green!” policies and The Fed’s allegedly trying to fight inflation, markets are getting trashed.

Fed Fireball! Mortgage Rates Climb To Highest Level Since 2009 As Fed Attacks Inflation And Markets Get Crushed (S&P 500 Index Down 7% In April, Bitcoin Down 11%)

Its Saturday and I am dreading markets opening on Monday. But here is where we sit today.

The 30-year mortgage rate has soared to 5.29%, the highest level since 2009 at the beginning of Obama’s Presidency. Since 2009, we have seen the purchasing power of the US Dollar decline further (orange line) while inflation (blue line) has soared. M1 (yellow) and M2 (green) has been growing since the financial crisis, but really took-off with the Covid outbreak in 2020 and The Fed’s massive overreaction coupled with Federal government stimulus.

Since the creation of The Federal Reserve System under President Woodrow Wilson, the purchasing power of the US Dollar has collapsed so much that $10 in 1913 in worth 34.8 cents today. But notice that since 1949, the CPI YoY has rarely been negative meaning that prices are pretty much only going up.

Instead of April showers bring May flowers, it is April expected Fed rate hikes (now 10.408 rate hikes by February 2023) bringing declining assets prices. In April so far, the S&P 500 index is DOWN 7%, the 10-year Treasury Note price is DOWN 5%, Bitcoin is DOWN 11%, the 3.5 coupon agency MBS price is down 3.2%.

We are seeing increased volatility in both the equity and bond markets.

Well, Powell and The Fed are hurling fireballs at mortgage rates and asset prices in April.

Slipping Into Darkness! Bidenflation And Fed’s Reaction Causing Social Security And Pension Funds To Get Clobbered (Mortgage Rates Keep Climbing)

US President Biden went green and signed executive orders on his first day to limit oil and natural gas exploration of Federal lands and offshore (also, killed the Keystone Pipeline), helping to drive up energy prices and food prices. These orders begat inflation (also caused by the massive Covid relief by the Federal government). The highest inflation in 40 years begat The Federal Reserve signalling a tightening of Fed monetary policy … to fight the problem caused by The Fed in the first place … too much monetary stimulus for too long. Fiscal and monetary fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding

There was an interesting article on MarketWatch entitled “Bond rout exposes Social Security’s insanity.” The headline was “Every dollar of yours that’s invested in the Social Security trust fund is invested in low-yielding government bonds.”

Yes, another disastrous consequence of The Fed’s lax monetary policy since 2008, helping to push Treasury yields extremely low. And REAL Treasury yields into negative territory.

But here we sit today with The Fed threatening to trim their balance sheet and raise rates … to combat the inflation they helped create in the first place. Now we have the 10-year Treasury Note price falling like a paralyzed falcon with expected hate hikes going above rate hikes by February 2023 (based on Fed Funds Futures prices).