Falling energy prices were a significant factor in the big decline in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) earlier this year.
Bad news: energy prices are now heading up. That means the CPI relief was almost certainly transitory.
I’ve been saying that the government job numbers seem wonky. Looking at the monthly revisions bears this out. Every month this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised the nonfarm payroll numbers from previous months lower.
Gold is nature’s money.
Aristotle listed four characteristics of sound money: it must be durable, portable, divisible, and have intrinsic value. Gold possesses all of these characteristics, which is why gold has served as money for thousands of years.
Labor Day is coming up. That means we will hear a lot about the plight of American workers. And we will undoubtedly hear calls for new policies to help make their lives better. But we don’t really need more government policies to help workers.
We need better money.
President Biden might be optimistic about the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell might be optimistic about the economy. But the average American?
Not so much.
The federal government has added $1.3 trillion to the national debt in just three months.
When the fake debt ceiling fight ended and Congress suspended the federal government’s borrowing limit for two years in June, the national debt stood at $31.46 trillion. As of Aug. 26, the debt had surged to $32.81 trillion.
And with the Biden administration running massive deficits month after month, there’s no reason to think the borrowing is going to slow down anytime soon.
There is a growing consensus that the Federal Reserve can slay price inflation while guiding the economy to a “soft landing.” In fact, Fed economists now project the US economy will not spin into a recession. Other mainstream pundits and prognosticators have taken up this narrative. But there are plenty of reasons to doubt it.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 33 Florida counties on Saturday in anticipation of Hurricane Idalia, thus activating one of the most misguided and counterproductive economic policies imaginable.
Yes, with the sweep of his pen, DeSantis banned “price gouging.”
Since price inflation took off in the wake of pandemic-era stimulus, Americans have blown through their savings and run up their credit cards to make ends meet. Now they’re starting to have a hard time paying those credit card bills.
The number of Americans rolling credit card debt from month to month is now higher than the number of people paying their bills in full for the first time ever.
The financial crisis precipitated by rising interest rates continues to bubble under the surface.
Earlier this month, Moody’s cut the credit rating of 10 small and midsize banks. It also placed six large banks on review for potential downgrades and revised 11 more banks from a stable outlook to a negative outlook.
This week, S&P Global followed Moody’s lead and downgraded the credit ratings of five banks. It also lowered the outlook for several others
