Good news. The looming US recession has been canceled.
Or has it?
I’ll say this about the Federal Reserve: it tends to follow the script.
Everybody expected that the central bank would hike rates at the July FOMC meeting, and that’s exactly what it did. The Fed boosted the federal funds rate another 25 basis points to 5.25 to 5.5%.
John Hussman predicted the 2000 and 2008 stock market crashes. Now he’s saying the current stock market bubble will “end in tears.”
In a recent note, the Hussman Trust president said the S&P 500 needs to plunge 64% in order to “restore run-of-the-mill long-term prospective returns.”
A bag of “junk silver” given to a woman by her father more than 50 years ago is now worth at least five figures.
The Oklahoma woman received a bag of 2,000 silver half-dollar coins as a gift back in 1970. While the face value of the coins is just $1,000, the silver alone is worth over $17,800.
We are all keenly aware of price inflation. We notice those rising prices every time we go into a store. But the inflation boogeyman is hitting you even harder than you realize. Not only are you paying more for pretty much everything you buy, you’re getting less.
Literally.
It’s called shrinkflation.
You had better get ready for the world of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) because they are coming. And they are coming fast.
According to a recent survey by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as many as 24 CBDCs could be in circulation by 2030.
With three months left, the fiscal 2023 budget deficit has already eclipsed the massive 2022 shortfall.
The US government ran a $227.77 billion deficit in June, pushing the total fiscal 2023 shortfall to $1.393 trillion, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for June.
The Federal Reserve got just what it needed – an even cooler-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) report card for June. This could give the central bank a plausible excuse to back off its inflation fight.
But make no mistake, inflation isn’t dead or buried.
Americans continued to run up credit card debt in May, but borrowing for big-ticket items tanked. This could indicate that cash-strapped, over-leveraged consumers are reaching the end of the rope.
American consumers borrowed another $7.2 billion in May, increasing total consumer debt to a record $4.865 trillion, according to the latest data released by the Federal Reserve.