ALT-Assets Counterattack! Gold Hits All-time High (Bitcoin Hits All-time High Too)

I love gold! And silver too!! And Bitcoin!!!

Let’s start with gold. Extending their run of the last few days, spot gold prices just exceeded their all-time highs, topping $2140 for the first time in history…

Source: Bloomberg

A longer view.

Source: Bloomberg

What is gold pricing in about future Fed action? Real rates dramatically negative? As Luke Gromen noted on X:

When gold rises in your currency DESPITE positive real rates, the gold market is saying ‘Your government will have a debt spiral if real rates remain positive’.

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin just hit $68,567.57, also an all-time high.

The Alt-Assets (gold, silver, Bitcoin) have counterattacked!!

Biden’s Runaway Train! Ukraine War, Border Invasion, Lawfare Campaign Against Trump, Too Large And Powerful Administrative State

Or as Bonnie Beecher almost sang in a Twilight Zone episode, “Come wander with China Joe Biden.” On The White House lawn. Or wander with The Federal Reserve!

The USA is a runaway train with a dead man (China Joe is about as dead as one can be) in the engineer’s seat. The conductor goes through the cars assuring the passengers that everything is fine. . . never mind the screeching wheels on the curves. . . or the blinding strobe effect of low sunlight passing through the trees out the window at a hundred and forty mph. . . or the bump that made half the stuff in the overhead luggage rack jump out. More than half the people on-board are at tachycardia levels of fright — some are screeching — but the other less than half just remain fixed on their phones and laptop screens. They can’t be bothered to look out the window…

Okay, that’s a metaphor.

But if you’re a citizen of our country and care about it, these are the matters you’d better pay attention to, because they are all going off the rails.

The war in Ukraine. We started it in 2014 to mess with Russia and Russia is going to finish it. Who knows what our real motives were. A resource grab? A desperate ploy to erase our national debt by creating a global fiasco? Sheer psychopathic hatred of this Putin fellow? We can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge the failure of this ill-conceived venture. Instead, our feckless allies in Europe are foolishly rattling their sabers, apparently forgetting that you don’t bring a sword to a nuclear missile fight.

Mr. Macron in France affects to offer up his army for slaughter on the blood-soaked plains of Ukraine, just as the Ukrainians offered up a half a million of their young men so that Victoria Nuland could feel good about herself. Mr. Macron is insane, but the society he presides over is collectively insane, so perhaps he represents them well. Similarly, Olaf Scholz in Germany, whose top generals were caught on a leaked recording last week discussing their plan to blow up the Kerch Bridge that connects Crimea to Russia. Do you understand that this would be a direct attack on Russia, an act of War by NATO? And what the obvious consequence would be?

The phantom government of “Joe Biden” is too weak and mindless to join any negotiation. Ukraine and Russia are up to some kind of cross-talk down in Riyadh with Prince MBS. Even Mr. Zelensky went down for a day, though video appears to show him coked-up, sniffling and snarfling, not a good sign. If ever there was a time to end this stupid conflict, it’s now, before the Russian election. After that, terms will only be more difficult for Ukraine, up to direct custodial supervision instead of remaining a nation. It was never any of our business (though the Biden family, BlackRock, and the CIA saw fabulous opportunity to profit there).

Next is the border. You saw last year how the blob elite greeted the transfer of illegal immigrants to their happy little island of Martha’s Vineyard. (They were not amused by Governor DeSantis’s prank, and off-loaded the mutts post-haste.) But that same smug demographic doesn’t care if hundreds of thousands are distributed to the big cities, which are now fiscally destabilized by them to an extreme, probably to bankruptcy.

Of course, that is not the main thing to worry about with what altogether amounts to millions of border-jumpers flooding our land. The main reason to worry is what the blob that invited them here intends for them to do, which, you may suspect, is to unleash mayhem in the streets, malls, stadiums, and upon our infrastructure just in time to derail the election — perhaps even to make war on us right in our homeland. The US government is paying for this whole operation, you understand, funneling our tax money to international cut-out orgs who set up the transfer camps in Panama, and buy the plane tickets for the mutts to cross the ocean, and coordinate with the Mexican cartels to shuttle this horde of mystery people among us to work their juju for the Democratic Party. The pissed-off-ness of the public has passed the red line on this.

A third FUBAR is the lawfare campaign of the Democratic Party and its regime in power against the citizens of this land. This folder includes overt and obvious political prosecutions by DA’s and AG’s who make election promises to “go after” individuals without such niceties as probable cause. It includes the gigantic new scaffold of inter-agency censorship and propaganda. It includes the psychopathic struggle sessions mandated by “diversity and inclusion” policy. It includes election-rigging directed by the likes of Marc Elias and Norm Eisen, getting states to fiddle laws on voter ID and mail-in ballots. It includes the political protection of rogue groups ranging from looter flash-mobs to Antifa anarchists who bust up things and people and burn buildings down. It includes state officials who peremptorily kick candidates off the ballot. It includes a nakedly biased judiciary, and especially the use of the DC federal district court to punish people extralegally, unjustly, extravagantly, and cruelly. In short, lawfare is the complete perversion of law, and we-the -people are entreated by reprobate officials such as Merrick Garland and Letitia James to accept it.

A fourth item on this list is the US economy which has been overwhelmed by maladministration of an overgrown monster bureaucracy, and the gross (perhaps fatal) mismanagement of the government’s money. The people of this land are not being allowed to do business, to find a livelihood, to transact fairly. “Joe Biden’s” shadow string-pullers are messing as badly with the oil and gas producers as they have messed with Ukraine. And they are doing it in pursuit of a laughable mirage: their “green new deal.”

John Podesta, the “clean energy czar” who replaced the Haircut-in-search-of-a-brain called John Kerry, sits on a $370-billion slush fund that can be used to just dole out to anyone and everyone a political patronage payoff, especially to janky “community” orgs and NGOs with fake agendas. This really just amounts to an asset-stripping operation that will leave the American people busted and with broken supply chains for everything. Instead of annual budgets, Congress raises the US debt ceiling by “continuing resolutions” to keep the government from shutting down. The national debt races to the $35-trillion mark. As interest rates on debt rise, our debt payments now exceed our military spending. You can be sure that our country will break down financially very soon.

The capper on today’s list is the nation’s health, the racketeering system we’ve set up to care for it, and the public health agencies of the government that enabled the Covid-19 operation to happen. The CDC continues to push vaccines that have killed millions of Americans and more millions around the world, and has probably compromised the well-being of millions more going forward. Corporate medicine — that is, your doctor, and your hospitals — is a sinking Titanic of grift and chaos. Try to get an appointment to even see a doctor for an emergency. Try to avoid being bankrupted by your treatment. Try to get out of a hospital alive. Yeah, it’s that bad.

The doctors have surrendered your trust in them with their lying and their bullshit. The current director of the CDC, Mandy Cohen and her predecessor, Rochelle Walensky, have knowingly presided over the mass killing and injuries imposed on the mRNA vaccinated. Hundreds of their deputies should be liable for prosecution, and so should many of the other prominent characters in the Covid Saga: Fauci, Birx, Collins, Baric, Bourla, Daszak, Califf, Woodcock, Hahn, and many more.

What are we going to do about any of this? Return to the metaphor. The runaway train is still picking up speed. You can’t just jump off at 150 mph. If you’re one of the passengers watching this in horror, maybe you can decouple your car, or get the conductor to do it by any means necessary. Let’s say that each car behind the engine of this train is a state of the United States. Let the engine up front with the dead man at the controls ride that runaway to its terrible conclusion. Cut loose the cars behind it to take care of themselves, to slow down, get a grip on their situation, and make plans to find a better engine to pull the train. Decouple. Cut loose. It’s the only way.

Too Much Debt! $1 Trillion In Federal Debt Every 100 Days (Bidenomics TOTALLY Dependent On Federal Spending And More Debt)

Too much debt! US politicians are spending too much money and borrowing too much. Unfortunately, that is what Biden and Bidenomics is all about: Federal targeted spending and loads of debt.

The arrival of the Covid pandemic provided the cover for these purveyors of propaganda and panic to run $3 trillion deficits and establish a new baseline of $1 trillion per year. The house of cards, built upon a crumbling foundation of debt comes crashing down when deficits are allowed to drop below $1 trillion. Running in place gets more expensive by the day.

Now it requires $1 trillion of new debt every 100 days to achieve nothing but remaining static economically. The regime media pundits and the cabal on Wall Street tell us the economy is doing great. No recession in sight. All is well. The dumbed down and distracted ignorant masses don’t realize all the reported “economic growth” is “created” by the government, enabled by The Fed, spending billions on their wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, funneling the money into the Military Industrial Complex corporations; paying for the transportation, feeding, and housing of the illegal invading hordes; hiring more government drones to harass the citizenry, and desperately trying to prop up a corrupt tottering empire in its final death throes.

Anyone with even the slightest mathematical acumen knows increasing the national debt at a rate of $1 trillion every 100 days is a death wish. Why would those pulling the strings behind the scenes of this acceleration towards the cliff of national suicide be doing so at this point in time? It’s almost as if the November elections are a deadline for them to complete their exit strategy plan.

I believe we are entering the Great Taking phase of this clown show.

They are purposely creating a global financial disaster in order to take everything you and I have. It sounds crazy, but so is adding $1 trillion of debt every 100 days. 

The good news about the latest US GDP report? GDP grew by $334 billion. The bad news? Yellen and Treasury had to borrow $834 billion in debt to get there. That is a ratio of $2.5 of debt to get $1 of GDP. Only in Washington DC does math like that causes zero consternation.

Factchecking Biden And Krugman: AWFUL Jobs Situation And Re-accelerating Inflation (Food Prices UP 21% Under Biden, Food Spending As Share Of Disposable Income Hits 3 Decade High)

Cash on the barrelhead. To pay for outrageous inflation and food prices under Joe “Nero” Biden.

President Biden: “Inflation is the lowest it has been in nearly three years. And wages, wealth, and jobs are higher than they were before the pandemic.”

Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate in economics and propaganda expert (ala, Leni Riefenstahl) pointed to this chart to illustrate that inflation is declining or at least hasn’t doubled under Biden, (although it looks like food prices are up 21% under Biden). Most elites won’t notice since someone does the shopping for them. Can you imagine Joe and Jill Biden at the local Kroger grocery store? Or Barrack and Mike Obama at the local grocery store on Martha’s Vineyard??

A counter to Biden’s and Krugman’s claims of “everything is peachy!” is that the situation is actually dire.

1. Prices have never been higher and are starting to accelerate to the upside again

2. All the jobs created in the past year have been part time.

3. There has been zero job growth for native-born Americans since 2018; all jobs have gone to immigrants (mostly illegal immigrants)

4. Real wages have not only been negative for most of the Biden presidency, they just turned negative again

In addition, food spending’s share of disposable income is at its highest in three decades.

Nero supposedly fiddled while Rome was burning. Joe “Nero” Biden eats ice cream while the USA burns.

Worst Monthly Spike of “Core Services” PCE Inflation in 22 Years (Will This Lead The Fed To Hike Rates?)

Well, this might keep The Fed talking heads up at night.

Over the past year or so, the Fed has been intensely discussing inflation in “core services,” which is where inflation had shifted to in 2022, from goods inflation which had spiked into mid-2022 but then cooled dramatically. So “core services” is where it’s at. Core services is where consumers spend the majority of their money. Core services are all services except energy services. Core services inflation has been behaving badly for months, and in January, it spiked out the wazoo.

The “core services” PCE price index spiked to 7.15% annualized in January from December, the worst month-to-month jump in 22 years (blue line), according to index data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Drivers of the spike were non-housing measures as well as housing inflation. More on each category in a moment.

The bad behavior of core services inflation that we have been lamenting since June – and which was confirmed earlier this month by the nasty surprise in the CPI – is why Fed governors have said this year in near unison that they’re in no hurry to cut rates, but have taken a wait-and-see approach. And now the concept of rate hikes is cropping up in their speeches again.

For example, Fed governor Michelle Bowman said in the speech yesterday, that she was “willing to raise the federal funds rate at a future meeting should the incoming data indicate that progress on inflation has stalled or reversed.”

Even year-over-year, core services inflation has now reversed and accelerated to 3.5%.

This reversal of fortune may be big enough to lead The Fed to raise rates.

Speaking of coping with inflation …

US Pending Home Sales Disappoint In January, Falling -6.82% YoY

I feel like the economy is fixing to die. At least the housing and mortgage sectors.

Pending home sales puked in January, tumbling 4.9% MoM (vs +1.5% MoM exp). This was made worse by a large downward revision for December (from +8.3% MoM to +5.7% MoM)…

Source: Bloomberg

That was the biggest MoM decline since August and dragged the YoY sales decline to -6.82%, tumbling back near record lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Realtors gonna realtor…

“This combination of economic conditions is favorable for home buying,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

“However, consumers are showing extra sensitivity to changes in mortgage rates in the current cycle, and that’s impacting home sales.”

WTF are you talking about Larry?

Earlier this week, a gauge of US mortgage applications for home purchases fell for a fifth week, nearing its lowest level since 1995. 

Who could have seen that coming? As rates surged once again…

Source: Bloomberg

The pending-home sales report is a leading indicator of existing-home sales given houses typically go under contract a month or two before they’re sold.

The index of contract signings decreased 7.3% in the South, the nation’s biggest housing market.

Pending sales also fell 7.6% in the Midwest, but climbed 0.8% in the Northeast and 0.5% in the West.

“Southern states and those in the Rocky Mountain time zone experienced faster job growth compared to the rest of the country,” Yun said.

“As a result, long-term housing demand is increasing more significantly in these regions. However, the timing and number of purchases will largely depend on the prevailing mortgage rates and inventory availability.”

Overall sales are expected to increase 13% this year, according to NAR’s economic outlook, but as the chart above shows, unless rates start tumbling soon, that ain’t gonna happen.

Victory?? US GDP Grew By $334 Billion In Q4 With $834 Billion In Additional Debt ($2.5 In Debt To Get $1 Of GDP, Unfunded Liabilities At $664,000 Per Citizen)

Paul Krugman and others are cheering the defeat of inflation (odd since it is on the rise again). But how does our Federal government “grow” the economy and inflation? Borrow and spend, baby!

The Bureau of Economic Analysis just released Q4’s GDP update. The good news? US GDP grew by $334 billion. The bad news? Yellen and Treasury had to borrow $834 billion in debt to get there. That is a ratio of $2.5 of debt to get $1 of GDP. Only in Washington DC does math like that causes zero consternation. They are all down at the nightclub partying the nights away.

I still want to hear Biden (or any other elected official, Democrat or Republican) to explain to me how the US is going to honor its unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare, etc) which is $664,000 PER CITIZEN. Again, this figure does not included the 8-11 million illegal immigrants who have stormed our borders under Biden. Hey, how about an entry fee for each immigrant of $664,000?

“Billions” Biden loves to spend money along with members of Congress and the Administrative State.

Stall Speed! How Bidenomics Has Caused Mortgage Demand To Stall, Mortgage Applications Down 5.6% From Last Week (Inflation + Fed = Mortgage Rates Above 7%)

The mortgage market has reached stall speed thanks to Bidenomics (inflation begat Fed tightening that begat 7%+ mortgage rates).

Mortgage applications decreased 5.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 23, 2024.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week.  The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 12 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased 7 percent from the previous week and was 1 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 7.04 percent from 7.06 percent, with points increasing to 0.67 from 0.66 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.

Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Plunged To -3.90 In January (Consumers Suffering Under Bidenomics With Food Prices UP 21% Under Biden, Diesel Fuel Prices UP 90%)

Confidence! It’s what consumers DON’T have under Bidenomics.

For the fourth straight month, The Conference Board revised its consumer confidence data significantly lower. In fact January’s was the biggest downward revision since Feb 2022. And Conference Board Consumer Confidence was DOWN to -3.90 in January, the worst since Feb 2022.

It really isn’t surprising the consumer confidence stinks. Food prices (CPI) are UP 21% under Vacation Joe Biden. Diesel fuel prices are UP 90% under Listless Joe.

Well, Biden’s appearance on (unfunny) Seth Myer’s Late Night Show certainly didn’t make me feel more confident about America’s future.

Boom, Boom! Housing Inflation Persists As Case-Shiller 20 Home Price Index Rises For 11th Month In A Row (National Index Rose 5.54% YoY While Avg Weekly Earnings Were Only 2.97% YoY)

John Lee Hooker sang it best: Boom, Boom! Home price inflation, that is!

The Case-Shiller National home price index rose in December by 5.54% year-over-year (YoY) while average weekly earnings has remained lower that home price growth since September 2023 (pink box) and from August 2020 to December 2023.

Home prices in America’s 20 largest cities rose for the 11th straight month in December (the latest data released by S&P Global Case-Shiller today), up 0.21% MoM (in line with the 0.20% MoM expected and 0.24% prior).

San Diego reported the highest year-over-year gain among the 20 cities with an 8.8% increase in December, followed by Los Angeles and Detroit, each with an 8.3% increase. Portland showed a 0.3% increase this month, holding the lowest rank after reporting the smallest year-over-year growth.

Given the current level of home prices, here is a picture of the average down payment for a house by state. Florida and Washington DC lead the nation followed by Washington state and California.

Inflation, that hideous strength.

Here is The Animal’s version of Boom, Boom.