As Americans prepare to hit the road for Thanksgiving, average gas prices will be at their highest seasonal level ever, according to GasBuddy.
GasBuddy says the national average is projected to stand at $3.68 on Thanksgiving Day. This is nearly 30¢ higher than last year, and over 20¢ higher than the previous record of $3.44 set in 2012.
And diesel prices, the life blood of the shipping industry, relative to gasoline prices, are soaring. Highest since 2004.
As we approach Thanksgiving Day, it is important to be thankful … that things aren’t even worse under Billions Biden. US CRB foodstuffs are up 49% under Biden while diesel fuel is up 102%.
Now, gasoline prices fell recently as WTI crude prices slipped on slowing demand. And as stimulus wears out.
And its now only food.
Have a holly jolly Thanksgiving!!
My Thanksgiving dinner, because of the cost, will be a Jersey Mike’s turkey and provolone sub (mini). Or this canned dinner.
The chaos created by Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX Crypto Exchange) and Alameda Research (SBF’s hedge fund) will go down in history as one of the biggest scams. And should earn a top spot on Phil Hall’s 100 Years Of Wall Street Crooks.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt crypto empire owes its 50 biggest unsecured creditors a total of $3.1 billion, new court papers show, with a pair of customers owed more than $200 million each.
FTX-linked entities owe their single biggest unsecured creditor more than $226 million, according to a redacted list of top 50 creditors filed late Saturday. All of them were listed as customers and ten have claims of more than $100 million each, the filings show.
The creditors, whose names and locations weren’t disclosed, are among the vast array of people and institutions caught up in FTX’s insolvency. The 50 largest claims are all from customers owed $21 million or more.
In the US, bankrupt companies are required to disclose information about their debts as part of insolvency proceedings. Creditors will get to weigh in on the best way for FTX to repay its debts as the bankruptcy unfolds.
FTX said it has assets and liabilities of at least $10 billion each in preliminary court papers. The case may involve more than one million creditors, according to lawyers for FTX.
The case is FTX Trading Ltd., 22-11068, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
On top of that, SBF is attempting to raise MORE money. The question is … who would be dumb enough to listen to SBF?
Crytpo continue to fall as investor confidence in crytpo has waned since SBF’s fraud was exposed. (In SBF’s defense, I am sure that current House Financial Services committee Chair Maxine Waters will declare he is a victim of changing market conditions, not historically massive fraud and political influence pedaling).
Didn’t SBF or his Alameda Research girlfriend Caroline Ellison look at Bitcoin as inflation roared under Biden and Fed started to remove its epic monetary stimulus? Or did any of the investors or their representatives bother to look at the books of FTX or Alameda Research??
I have the sneaking suspicion that Caroline Ellison or some other little fish will take the fall for SBF’s fraud. SBF has bought-off too many politicians.
As I mentioned on Varney and Company on Fox Business, housing is going to suffer when The Fed starts to tighten their monetary policy. And here we are, folks!
US existing home sales fell a staggering -28.43% YoY in October as M2 Money growth grinds to almost a halt.
October’s existing home sales YoY of -28.43% is the WORST since The Great Recession and collapse of Lehman Brothers.
The median price of existing home sales slowed to 6.6% YoY. Inventory of EHS remains below pre-Covid levels.
Unrelated to housing, Prince Imhotep (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari) said Friday that the whole idea of cryptocurrency is “nonsense” after the implosion of FTX revealed the industry’s shortcomings.
“This isn’t case of 1 fraudulent company in a serious industry,” Kashkari said on Twitter, commenting on an article about how investors fell for FTX. “Entire notion of crypto is nonsense. Not useful 4 payments. No inflation hedge. No scarcity. No taxing authority. Just a tool of speculation & greater fools.”
Or it could be that investors don’t trust The Fed or Federal government to act in their best interest.
Here is a crypto investor (in red fez) being lectured by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.
There is another Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on December 14th and everyone is interested in what The Fed will do. Or how much will The Fed raises rates?
Recent inflation numbers are still terrible (for the US, that is). But slowing, giving Fed officials reason to slow down the pace of rate increases.
But now the Cleveland Fed has introduced a new inflation measure: Indirect Consumer Inflation Expectation index. And unfortunately it shows that consumers expectations for inflation is actually rising rapidly over the past two weeks to over 8%.
I have stopped listening to the various Fed Presidents (like Collins, Bostic and Bullard) babbling about what The Fed will do like so many bobbleheads in a car. I like Fed Funds Futures data. And it is showing a rate increase at the December 14th meeting of 52 basis points (that is, 50 basis points will some investors betting on 75 basis points).
So, consumers think inflation is hotter than the CPI data indicates.
The Philadelphia Fed’s Business Outlook plunged to 1-9.40% YoY, the worst since 2012. Notice how the Philly Phed Plunge is related to M2 Money growth YoY.
Privately‐owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,425,000. This is 4.2 percent below the revised September estimate of 1,488,000 and is 8.8 percent below the October 2021 rate of 1,563,000. Single‐family housing starts in October were at a rate of 855,000; this is 6.1 percent below the revised September figure of 911,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 556,000.
The noticeable trends are the decline in 1-unit detached housing starts relative to 5+ unit (multifamily) start as mortgage rates rise/
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,526,000. This is 2.4 percent below the revised September rate of 1,564,000 and is 10.1 percent below the October 2021 rate of 1,698,000. Single‐family authorizations in October were at a rate of 839,000; this is 3.6 percent below the revised September figure of 870,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 633,000 in October.
The housing permits chart looks quite similar to the starts chart above. Single-family starts are now lower than before Covid while multifamily permits are still above pre-Covid levels.
Here is a nice chart as well for total housing starts and permits.
Of course, it is easy to blame the figure on rapidly rising mortgage rates and Federal Reserve tightening.
But the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say) is that US REAL wage growth has been NEGATIVE for 19 straight months. This alone makes housing unaffordable for the middle class and low wage workers.
Again, why are Biden and Trudeau wearing Mao jackets in Bali? And why is Biden looking like a robot?? Biden does look like he is saying “Take me to my leader, Pei.”
US mortgage rates fell last week by the most since the end of July, slipping below 7% and helping generate a bounce in purchase applications that otherwise remain depressed, but only in the Seasonally Adjusted data. The NON-Seasonally Adjusted data show a hefty decline.
The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage decreased 24 basis points to 6.9% in the week ended Nov. 11, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday. The group’s index of applications to buy a home rose 4.4% — the most since June — but is still near the weakest level since 2015.
But the bounce was in Seasonally Adjusted data only. The NON-seasonally adjusted data remained depressed.
Mortgage applications decreased -10.0 percent SA from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 11, 2022. This week’s results include an adjustment for the observance of Veterans Day.
The Refinance Index decreased -11.44% percent from the previous week and was 88 percent lower than the same week one year ago.The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased -10 percent compared with the previous week and was 46 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
Mortgage purchase applications will continue to fall in NSA terms since it is the Winter and home buying season won’t really start until January. Refinancing applications actually dropped -11.44% even with the drop in mortgage rates.
The data. As my former students know, I like the “raw” data, better known as NON-seasonally adjusted (NSA) data and avoid seasonally-adjusted data (SA) since it hides what is going on.
And on The Fed Futures Front, The Federal Reserve is still looking a hiking their target rate from 4% to just under 5%.
Between Biden’s green energy mandates and the spendathon by the Pelosi/Schumer led Keynesians in Congress (or Kongress), we saw a 40-year high in inflation.
But with roaring Bidenflation, we have the S&P 500 index experiencing, in real terms, the worst performance since 1872.
That is, the worst since President Ulysses Grant.
President Biden is dressed in his Mao outfit with Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
And the WEF’s Klaus Schwab.
At least Biden, Trudeau and Schwab are wearing different colored Mao jackets.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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