The U.S. is poised to enter Year Three of the pandemic with both a booming economy and a still-mutating virus. But for Washington and Wall Street, one Covid aftershock is starting to eclipse almost everything else.
Already-hot inflation is forecast to climb even further when November data comes out on Friday, to 6.8%. That would be the highest rate since Jimmy Carter was president in the early 1980s — and in the lifetimes of most Americans.
And the CPI change since last year, according to the Federal Reserve of St Louis FRED is a staggering 16.262%.
And with U.S. Jobless Claims plunge to 52-year low, its about time that The Fed begins removing the humongous monetary stimulus.
After all, largely thanks to Federal Reserve policies, we have seen the greatest wealth redistribution in US history … to the top 1%.
If this what the Biden Administration had in mind? Soaring labor costs at the same time that labor productivity is falling to its lowest level since 1960?
Powell and the Gang’s monetary approach doesn’t seem to be working for the labor market …
As The Federal Reserve tries to drain-off the extraordinary growth in its balance sheet since COVID without raising its target rate (good luck with that!), it is time to appraise where we are sitting. First, liquidity.
(Bloomberg) Buying and selling large quantities of U.S. government debt without substantially moving the market is about the hardest it’s been since the pandemic sent markets reeling in March 2020. Volatility has jumped, failed trades have increased — and Wall Street analysts warn that the Federal Reserve’s exit from bond-buying is set to make matters worse.
When markets seized up last year, liquidity in most Treasuries vanished, forcing the Fed to embark on massive asset purchases and other measures to avert a full meltdown. Now, the U.S. central bank is scaling back that buying, which has targeted the least-liquid Treasuries, and is poised to quicken the wind-down. At the same time, new government borrowing is ebbing, with the combination setting the stage for more fireworks.
OK, liquidity isn’t as bad as COVID and March 2020, but it is near the highest level since March 2020. The question is … will the numerous asset bubbles around the globe burstLet’s look at the ongoing saga of Chinese conglomerate Evergrande (mainly known as a large real estate developer). Their 8.25% bond has plunged to $23.481 on speculation of a catastrophic default on their bond payments. Then we have Invesco’s Golden Dragon China ETF (measuring a diversified market cap of US-listed companies headquartered or incorporated in China & derive a majority of their revenues from the People’s Republic of China). This ETF has crashed and burned back to pre-COVID (and Stimulytpo) levels.
Speaking of cracks, how will the Buffett Ratio US react to a reduction in The Fed’s balance sheet (orange line) and M1 and M2 Money stock? Given that the Fed Funds target rate is WAY below where it should be (according to the Taylor Rule).
As I mentioned yesterday, the Shiller CAPE ratio is at its highest level since the Dot.com debacle of 2000. How will the Shiller CAPE ratio react to The Fed’s tapering?
Even the Hinderburg Omen is flashing red … again.
Now, the Dow is up 600 points today, primarily on the news that the Omicron Variant is about as harmful as the common cold.
A major shift is underway at the Federal Reserve to begin to remove the central bank’s massive pandemic easing policies, and could see it hike rates sooner than is priced in by markets.
Comments by Fed officials suggest the central bank is likely to decide to double the pace of its taper to $30 billion a month at its December meeting next week. Initial discussions could also begin as soon as the December meeting about when to raise interest rates and by how much next year with Fed officials set to submit a fresh round of economic forecasts and projections for the fed funds rate.
There is no consensus yet on when to begin hikes, but it’s clear that the faster taper is designed to give the Fed flexibility to raise rates as soon as the spring. The markets do not appear to expect the first rate hike until the summer of 2022.
Uh-huh. Let’s see what happens when and if The Fed starts to taper. Is economic growth so strong that it can continue without Federal Stiumulypto? THAT is the right question.
Look at the above charts and tell me if The Fed will actually raise their target rate more than twice. Despite the Taylor Rule suggest a target rate of 15.50% to cool inflation.
President Joe Biden took to Twitter yesterday to celebrate how well his economic policies are working, particularly the American Rescue Plan. Between Congress and The Fed pumping trillions of dollars of stimulus in the economy, how is this surprising? Or a reason for celebration?
While declining unemployment is great, there is more to the story that President Biden failed to mention. Like … the number of people NOT in the labor force remains near 100 million (99,997,000 to be exact). Thanks to Covid-related policies (like job loss due to resisting vaccinations), increasing retirement, etc.), NOT in labor force remains elevated compared to pre-Covid levels. And, of course, Biden doesn’t want to mention that inflation is growing faster than hourly wage growth resulting in REAL hourly wage growth being -1.4% YoY.
And President Biden took credit (he is a politician, after all) for a small decline in gasoline prices. Of course, after helping send gasoline prices up over 50% since he took office.
So, is Biden going to take credit for increasing gasoline prices by 50%? And declining REAL average hourly earnings? Or over 100 million people NOT in the labor force? I doubt it. But he is focusing on the POSITIVES of his American Rescue Plan.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday that “It’s Fed’s Job to Avoid Any Wage-Price Spiral.” Well, The Fed is helping to avoid a wage increase in real terms, since the November jobs report revealed that REAL US Average Hourly Earnings growth YoY fell to -1.378%. In other words, inflation is greater than hourly earnings.
And in other jobs related news, nonfarm payrolls rose by only 210k versus expectations of 550k jobs to be added. Even NOMINAL hourly earnings growth (4.8% YoY) was less than expected (5.0%).
Labor force participation rose a bit to 61.8%, still well below the pre-COVID levels of 63.4% in January 2020.
The U-3 unemployment fell to 7.8%. Still higher than the pre-COVID rate of 7.0% in February 2020, but getting close! As for what this means for The Fed, the new target rate implied by the Taylor Rule is 15.50%.
After this lousy jobs report, 10-year Treasury yields dropped … like Biden’s approval ratings.
The Dream Team (Fed Chair Jay Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen) just can’t believe that inflation struck even after M1 Money Stock increased by 369% from March 2020 to today while interest rates remained near zero.
From The Hill: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said they underestimated how quickly the U.S. economy would rebound from the COVID-19 recession and strain supply chains.
During a Wednesday hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, the top two U.S. economic policymakers acknowledged that high inflation has risen higher and lingered much longer than they expected.
“We understood demand would be strong,” Powell said. “We didn’t understand [the] significant problems of the supply side.”
Both Yellen and Powell said substantial fiscal and monetary stimulus played a role in stoking the higher demand that fueled inflation, but they called it a challenging side-effect of an otherwise fast recovery.
Seriously? The Fed and the Federal government dumped trillions of dollars into an economic system and didn’t think there would be negative consequences??
Look at the surge in M1 Money Stock at the same time asset-backed commercial paper rates are 0.08%. That is, about 1/3rd The Fed Funds Target rate (upper bound). None of this concerned The Dream Team?
An example of what The Dream Team didn’t see happening was the explosion of home prices. Home price growth was about 4% YoY prior to COVID, and is now 19.51% YoY.
Now we have the US Treasury Actives curve inverting like the US Dollar Swaps curve after 20 years.
Calamity Jay Powell testified in front of the US Senate Banking Committee. He rattled markets by going hawkish about inflation, then gave The Fed an out by playing the COVID CARD (the latest Omicron Variant). Aka, the DEATH CARD.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the strong U.S. economy and elevated inflation could warrant ending the central bank’s asset purchases sooner than planned next year, though the new omicron strain of Covid-19 poses a fresh risk to the outlook.
“It is appropriate, I think, for us to discuss at out next meeting, which is in a couple of weeks, whether it will be appropriate to wrap up our purchases a few months earlier,” Powell said Tuesday. “In those two weeks we are going to get more data and learn more about the new variant.”
Powell made the comment in response to questions during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington. The Fed is currently scheduled to complete its asset-purchase program in mid-2022 under a plan announced at the start of November; policy makers next meet Dec. 14-15, where they could make a decision to accelerate the tapering.
On his remarks, the stock market puked.
Well, if Powell followed the Taylor Rule, he would really scare Congress with raising The Fed Funds Target Rate to 14.94% based on an inflation rate of 6.20%.
And then we have HOUSE price inflation of near 20%. But The Fed doesn’t consider than inflation.
Then we have oil prices retreating -4.59%. Not, not due to Biden releasing the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR). Rather it is FEAR of The Fed raising rates and a corresponding slowdown in economic growth.
Once again, low available inventory of houses for sale coupled with outlandish Fed stimulus has resulted in a housing crisis where home price growth (+19.51%) exceeds hourly wage growth (+5.76%) by almost 4x.
Where are all the home prices above 10% YoY? Every one of the 20 metro areas covered by Case-Shiller. Phoenix AZ leads at +33.1%. Chicago IL is the “slowest” at 11.8%.
Although Columbus OH is the growth hub of the state, Case-Shiller only reports Cleveland. So here is Columbus’s all-transactions home price growth for Q3: +16.2% YoY placing Columbus at the top of the midwest metro areas of Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland.
With the latest Omicron Variation (sounds like a Star Trek TV show episode), I will bet that The Fed will stay a little longer and keep rates low, leading to home price growth (with limited available inventory) to continue to grow at double digit speeds.
A forward-looking gauge of U.S. home purchases rebounded in October to a 10-month high, signaling steady housing demand despite growing affordability concerns among many prospective buyers.
The National Association of Realtors’ index of pending home sales increased 7.5% from a month earlier to 125.2, according to data released Monday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1% advance.
But it is the fifth straight month of year-over-year declines.
Low mortgage rates and solid job growth have supported housing demand this year as pandemic-weary buyers seek more spacious accommodations. Existing home sales are on track to exceed 6 million in 2021, which would be the strongest in 15 years, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said.
Yes, humongous stimulus from The Federal Reserve will help push existing home sales to exceed 6 million in 2021.
Still, competition over a scant number of listings — particularly on the lower, more affordable end of the resale market — has pushed prices out of reach for many prospective buyers. Builders have struggled to fill the void as supply-chain delays and labor shortages upend construction schedules, exacerbating the inventory crunch.
Yes, inventory of homes available for sale is almost 1/3rd of the homes available in 2010.
Ten years after ... and we have progressively less inventory available.
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