The Empire Strikes Out! US Producer Price Index Final Demand (Inflation) Hits 10% As NY State General Business Conditions Crash (Russia Winning Economic Demolition Derby With Ukraine)

Bad news. Its the same all over the world.

The US Producer Price Index (PPI) final demand rose 10% YoY in February, further evidence of spiraling inflation under Biden/Pelosi/Schumer’s reign of error.

And speaking of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Empire State Manufacturing Survey (General Business Conditions) crashed to -11.8.

And Russia is losing the economic demolition derby with Ukraine (at least for sovereign debt).

I am still trying to figure out what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) meant by “When we’re having this discussion, it’s important to dispel some of those who say, well it’s the government spending. No, it isn’t. The government spending is doing the exact reverse, reducing the national debt. It is not inflationary.”

Really Nancy?

Here is a chart of Federal government outlays and inflation. Massive expenditures and growth in Federal debt and the resulting inflation. Nancy?

Here is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi trying to figure out the cause of inflation in the US.

Weekend Update: US Q1 GDP Falls To 0.6%, Treasury 10Y-2Y Curve Flattens and Commodity Prices UP 52% Under Biden (Ports Still Clogged)

Russia is still attacking Ukraine and I am still seeing stories about actor/comedian Bob Saget’s cause of death. So now for something completely different.

After last week’s Personal Consumption Expenditures, GDP and new home sales reports, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real GDP estimate for Q1 shriveled to 0.6%.

The US Treasury yield curve? It is flattening rapidly as it typically does prior to a recession.

Commodities? Commodity prices are UP 52% under Biden. And that includes prices dropping slightly from 2/24 to 2/25.

And then there is average port delays in US ports. Hey, I thought Mayor Pete the port Czar was supposed to unclog the ports!

Hopefully this coming week will be better! Particularly for the Ukrainian people.

Elmer Fed? US PCE Price Growth Hits 5.2%, Highest Since Mid-1983 (Taylor Rule Suggests Target Rate of 13.35%)

And this doesn’t include the inflation in prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet.

US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 5.2% in January, the fastest rate since mid-1983.

With CPI inflation at 7.5% YoY, the Taylor Rule suggests a Fed Funds target rate of 13.35%, higher than the current rate of 0.25%. Overstimulated much??

Let’s see if The Fed actually goes hunting inflation.

Let’s see if inflation makes The Fed dance!

My Kuroda! Japan’s Inflation “Miracle” (0.5% Inflation) Despite $5 Trillion BOJ Balance Sheet And -0.10 Policy Rate

My Kuroda!

Forbes has an interesting article on the Japanese “miracle” entitled “The $5 Trillion Inflation Time Bomb No One’s Talking About.”

It’s taken nine years and the Bank of Japan supersizing its balance sheet to the $5 trillion mark, but Asia’s second-biggest economy finally has some inflation.

Officials in Tokyo are realizing the hard way, though, that it’s best to be careful what you wish for as bond yields spike.

Granted, the gains in consumer prices Japan is reporting are negligible compared to those in the U.S. and China. And inflation is still a good distance from the BOJ’s 2% target. Still, the 0.5% rise in consumer prices in January year-on-year is already unnerving the bond market. It followed a 0.8% jump in December and marks the fifth straight month of increases.

The worry is that Japan’s inflation is the “bad” kind. Haruhiko Kuroda was hired as BOJ governor in March 2013 to end deflation. Kuroda unleashed tidal waves of liquidity. That drove the yen down 30%, generated record corporate profits and sent Nikkei 225 Average stocks to 31-year highs.

Despite a staggering balance sheet with a -0.10 bps policy rate, Japan has only 0.5% inflation.

And Japan’s yield curve is negative at 3 year tenor and less.

How is it that Japan has virtually no inflation with negative rates but the USA has 7.5% inflation with a 0.25% target rate? Could it be the USA undertook massive fiscal spending related to COVID and reduced energy sources in an effort to go “green” that led to 7.5% inflation??

My Kuroda!

Good governments don’t go on wild, wasteful spending sprees and shut off energy sources like the Biden Administration and Congress.

Whip It! US Misery Index Highest In Modern History As Energy, Food And Building Material Prices SOAR (Flexible CPI Overwhelms Declining Unemployment Rate)

It is truly a miserable time for many Americans as demonstrated by the Misery Index (inflation rate + unemployment rate). But rather than using the CPI YoY measure at 7.5%, I am using the FLEXIBLE CPI YoY to compute the misery index. And is it ever miserable!

In January, the CORE flexible CPI YoY + U-3 unemployment rate hit a modern high at 22.99%. Or at least since 1967.

Like the movie “50 Shades of Gray,” we have 50 shades of inflation. Examples?

How about hardwood? Producer Price Index for hardwood is up 30.8% YoY.

How about diesel fuel prices? They are UP 40% since January 1, 2021.

How about housing? UP 20% YoY according to Zillow’s home value index.

Global food prices? UP 20% YoY.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Rising energy, food and construction materials are soaring making many Americans miserable.

But Powell and The Fed have promised to whip inflation. Whip it good … with interest rate increases.

Double Whammy, Staglflation Style! US Rents Soaring (12%) As Real-time Q1 GDP Slows To 0.7%

Call this a double whammy! Red-hot rents combined with a slowing economy.

According to CoreLogic, single-family annual rent growth finished 2021 at a new record: 11.7% YoY for high tier rental properties and 10.4% YoY for low tier rental properties.

Of course, southern and southwest rental properties are seeing the fastest rent growth. Particularly Miami at 36% YoY. Phoenix is no slouch at 19% growth in rents.

Inflation is really ripping the insides out of America’s working class. Especially with real-time GDP slowing to 0.7%.

Double whammy, indeed!

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Never Ending Inflation? Final Demand PPI Index UP 9.7% YoY As The Fed Keeps Its Foot On The Monetary Gas Pedal

Biden and The Fed have a seemingly never ending problem for Americans: Inflation.

Today, the Final Demand Producer Price Index (PPI) printed at 9.7% YoY.

Biden claimed inflation was caused by COVID. How about 1) Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies combined with 2) excessive fiscal (Biden and Congress) and excessive monetary stimulus (Fed)?

The Fed held its behind-closed-doors meeting on Monday, but nothing has been released about what they discussed. Suffice it to say, they have left the staggering monetary stimulus in play.

I wonder if The Fed is concerned about a soft landing with proposed rate increases.

Where’s The Beef? Challenger Job Cuts At -76%, Initial Jobless Claims Drop To 236K

Between the Biden Administration, Anthony Fauci and the media constantly screaming about the devastating effects of Omicron, I would have expected massive job cuts and a large spike in jobless claims. But alas, the numbers and charts tell a different story.

Today, we saw that the Challenger job cuts for January fell further to 76%. Initial jobless claims fell to 236k. And The Federal Reserve is still hyper-stimulating the economy.

After listening to Biden spokesperson Jen Psaki preparing us for an end-of-times job report, I was expecting today’s news dump to be terrible. But alas, it just looks like another day in Stimulyoptoville.

Hey Jen, where’s the beef? Now that I think of it, Jen Psaki looks like Wendy from the burger franchise. Except that the burger Wendy doesn’t terrify people.

US Debt-to-GDP Has Doubled Since 2008, But Hourly Workers Are Seeing Negative REAL Wage Growth (The Government Is Here To Help??)

Nothing has been the same since the financial crisis of 2008 (except we still have insider-trading superstar Nancy Pelosi as US House Speaker). What has changed is that US Public Debt to GDP (nominal dollars) has doubled.

Has doubling Federal debt helped the hourly worker? Initially we saw a surge in REAL hourly wage growth in 2009 as the US began to recover from the housing bubble burst and ensuing financial crisis. Another surge in REAL wage growth occurred when Federal debt exploded as the COVID crisis took hold. BUT more recently we see that REAL wage growth is negative.

The other aspect of pain for hourly workers is inflation which has reached 7%, the highest rate in 40 years.

Adding to the frustration of hourly workers is energy prices rising 80% under President Biden’s reign of error.

Most hourly wage earners can’t buy a Tesla or a $100,000 electric Chevy Silverado to take advantage of Biden’s green energy policies.

Will interest rates rise? Well, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has Fed Watch tool. It is saying that there will likely be a 25 basis point increase at the March 2022 meeting.

As Ronald Reagan once said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Too Much Money! U.S. Consumer Spending Drops, Price Index Up Most Since 1982 (REAL Personal Spending Fell 1% In December)

This is a case of “Too much money” in the economy, courtesy of The Federal Reserve.

(Bloomberg) — U.S. inflation-adjusted consumer spending fell last month by the most since February, suggesting that Americans tempered their outlays amid the latest Covid-19 wave and the fastest inflation in nearly 40 years.

Purchases of goods and services, adjusted for changes in prices, decreased 1% from November, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The personal consumption expenditures price gauge, which the Federal Reserve uses for its inflation target, rose 0.4% from a month earlier and 5.8% from December 2020, the most since 1982. Unadjusted for inflation, spending fell 0.6%, while incomes rose 0.3%.

Yes, the PCE Deflator YoY rose to 5.8% as M2 Money Stock is growing at a 13.1% YoY clip.

REAL personal spending declined 1% in December as prices rose in part thanks to the 13.1% growth in M2 Money stock YoY.

Too much money! Time to slow down, Jay Powell! Stop sucking the life out people with inflation.