Inflation is burning out of control. While home price growth has been off the cherts (as Jean-Ralphio would say), commercial real estate has jumped incredibly at 22% YoY. The Bloomberg charting function hasn’t updated for the Q4 NCREIF report yet so I had to manually write-in 22% on the following chart.
So, what will happen IF The Fed follows through with its monetary stimulus reduction? JPMC’s Jaime Dimon warns that The Fed could hike 7 times in 2022 and not be ‘sweet and gentle’.
It is somewhat mystifying that markets would be soooooo sensitive to 3 rate increases from The Fed, particularly since the Taylor Rule suggests that The Fed’s target rate should be 17.36%. Even if you don’t like the Taylor Rule or disagree with its inputs, you must admit that the gap between where The Fed is (0.25%) and where they should be (17.36%) is … k-razy.
How about real estate investment trusts? The NAREIT all-equity index rose by 35.6% YoY while inflation rose at 6.8%. The S&P 500 index rose 28.9% YoY.
Of course, the NAREIT all-equity index has a beta of 1.276.
How about the NCREIF All-property commercial real estate index? For Q3, the NCREIF property index rose by 5.22%, less than the most recent inflation reading of 6.8%.
So for the past year, housing has beaten the pants-off inflation, REITs have earned a higher return than inflation, and the NCREIF index seems to be rising slower than inflation (but with its lag problems, I anxiously await the Q4 numbers which should be higher.
Happy New Year! And Treasuries are off to fast start with investors bailing on Treasuries and buying stocks. AND the expectation that The Fed will raise rates 3 times this year.
The 10-year Treasury Note yield rose above 1.60% this morning.
And the US Treasury 10Y-2Y curve rose to 80.601 basis points.
Fed Funds Futures data is showing 3 rates hikes in 2022. May, September and December.
The Fed Dots project is definitely showing an upward trend in the Fed Funds Target rate with FOMC member forecasting the median target rate to be above 2% by 2024.
Of course, Fed reverse repo activity grew to an all-time high (but it is expected to pare-back).
How about mortgage rates? I expect mortgages rates to rise over 2022 as the 10-year Treasury Note rises.
Cautionary note: The Fed is likely to protect economic growth and ignore inflation. So I expect FOMC will continue to reinvest prepayments into Treasury and MBS, pro-rata to the current portfolio.
A good quote from The Hill story: “Under Biden, the American economy has recovered from its Trump-era lows with remarkable speed.” As Leslie Knope said “That seems like an unfair phrasing.”
Hmm. Well, here is a chart that best explains the “Biden Miracle.” It shows the growth in Federal expenditures from the previous year during the banking crisis and then the COVID crisis. During the banking crisis, the increase in Federal expenditures (red) was normal. It was the increase in The Fed’s balance sheet (blue) that was staggering. But for the mini-recession related to COVID (only two months so you can barely see it on the chart below), it was the growth in Federal expenditures (red) combined with another round of staggering Federal Reserve stimulus (blue).
A different view of Federal “Stimulypto” is show below. Since COVID and the election of Joe Biden as President, Fed monetary stimulus is at an all-time high and Federal expenditures, while they have slowed, are still above the pre-COVID spending levels.
Please note that the massive surge in Federal expenditures and Fed monetary stimulus began under Trump, but were only continued under Biden. That is why no one notices … it was Trump.
And if we look at the 10Y-2Y Treasury curve slope, the US is slippin’ into darkness since the slope typically rises after a recession, then falls. And we are in the falling (or slippin’) stage.
So, President Biden is benefiting from Trump’s and The Fed’s Stimulypto. I don’t expect partisan outlets like The Hill or crooner Barbra Streisand to look at the data.
With Build Back (Inflation) Better not passing in the US Senate, I fully expect The Federal Reserve to continue “low riding” interest rates. Inflation will probably cool as well as Federal expenditure growth slows.
So, Streisand’s statement should have said “Joe Biden’s economic record in his first year is the best in 40 years. The media largely ignores this … because the unsustainable Federal stimulus began under Trump, not Biden.”
Another thing The Hill and Barbra Streisand left out was declining REAL average hourly earnings growth (that is, average hourly earnings YoY – inflation).
Biden’s real contribution? Anti-fossil fuels actions have driven up energy prices. Regular gasoline prices, for example, are up 45% under Biden.
If The Fed actually follows through and removes COVID stimulus and Congress doesn’t keep the incredible rate Federal spending growing, I sincerely doubt that GDP will continue at this hot pace.
It has been almost a year since Joe Biden has been President of the United States and a Democrat majority took control of The House and Senate. And what has happened to the US Treasury yield curve slope over the past year?
The yield curve is back where it started. There was the “honeymoon effect” where the curve slope rose. After all, Biden was Obama’s Vice President for 8 years and The Democrats has promised so much in the 2020 election. But by early April, the reality of the massive Federal spending (combined with Fed Stimulypto) began showing what was feared: inflation (blue line) started to grow at a rapid rate of speed. With inflation now at 6.8% YoY,
In fairness to Biden, The Federal Reserve has been overstimulating the economy since The Federal Reserve since Ben Bernanke and the Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) dropped the hammer on The Fed Funds Target Rate once the rate hit 5.25% in September 2007. They kept cutting it reached 25 basis points (or 0.25%) in December 2008. In August 2008, Bernanke and Company began their “Quantitative Easing” or asset purchasing programs. Between The Fed’s Target Rate and QE, The Fed has continued to overstimulate markets ever since. Under Biden, The Fed Funds Target Rate remains at 0.25% and The Fed’s Balance sheet has grown to $8.79 Trillion (bigger than the entire economies of Japan and Germany put together!).
How about housing? Home prices are growing at 19% YoY while rents are growing at 12.65% YoY.
Energy prices have risen dramatically under Biden. Gasoline is up 46% despite a slight reprieve recently. WTI crude prices are up 64%.
How about food? Beef prices are up 20% and chicken prices are up 10%.
On a positive note, the S&P 500 index has soared … thanks has soared during Biden’s term thanks to Fed stimulus and Federal spending on COVID.
The Build Back Better Act if passed (in its entirety or on a piecemeal basis) will lead to even MORE inflation.
Perhaps Biden’s spokesperson Jen Psaki can recreate the Biden Administration as a lovable, hilarious family like the comic strip Gasoline Alley with old Joe Biden as Skeezix. And insider-trading star, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the family matriarch.
Housing in the US is getting “simply unaffordable.” And it has gotten far worse over the past year. Thanks to BAD government policies.
While wage growth is positive, inflation is sucking the life from consumers. REAL average hourly earnings growth is -2.0133%. Even worse, home prices are rising at a 14.12% pace in REAL terms. So, wages are losing to inflation and housing is pulling away from renters in terms of affordability.`
So it is not surprising that the University of Michigan consumer survey for “Buying Conditions For Housing” remains below 100 (meaning that more people think buying conditions for housing are negative than positive). With the Case-Shiller National home price index growing at a 19.51% YoY pace, it is no wonder that consumers are getting scared of the housing market.
Yes, US inflation is at a 40-year high and the 30-year Treasury Inflation Protected (TIP) yields is at -0.424%. That says quite a bit about the pickle US consumers are in.
US consumer confidence overall has declined to the lowest level since just after the financial crisis and housing bubble burst of 2008-9.
Doctor, Doctor (Yellen), please don’t try to make housing more “affordable” which will result in housing being even LESS affordable.
But I do like how Biden took credit for lowering gasoline prices a little after his anti-energy policies drove up gasoline prices in the first place from $2.20 to $3.40 a gallon, a 55% price increase. Thanks for nothing, Joe!
And with Omicron raging (with few reported deaths), Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser, indicated support for making vaccinations a requirement for domestic fights.
The core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) deflator numbers for November were released this morning and the print was a whopping 4.7% YoY, the highest rate since 1989.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumer spending, adjusted for inflation (aka, REAL personal spending), stagnated in November as the fastest price gains in nearly four decades eroded purchasing power. Stagnated to 0.
Purchases of goods and services, after adjusting for higher prices, were little changed following a 0.7% gain in October, Commerce Department figures showed Thursday.
And as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story.
Core PCE growth YoY of 4.68% implies a Fed Funds target rate of 11.84%. Powell and the gang have the target rate at 0.25%. But the Taylor Rule doesn’t take into account the latest FEAR raging in Washington DC … the Omicron variant. Just another excuse for The Fed to do nothing and let asset bubbles blow out of control.
With just three days until Christmas, we are seeing gold (gold line) rise, the US Dollar (green line) fall and the major Crytos Bitcoin and Ethereum remain quiet.
And the US Treasury 10Y-2Y slope is back to where is started when Biden was elected.
The University of Michigan consumer survey numbers are out tomorrow. Let’s see how they look. Or will they simply be anticipating Michigan playing Georgia in the Orange Bowl??
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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