The Federal Reserve doesn’t have a very good track record. It was wrong about transitory inflation. It was wrong about peak inflation. And it’s almost certainly wrong in thinking the economy is strong enough to withstand tighter monetary policy to fight inflation.
But President Joe Biden trusts the Fed. The cornerstone of his inflation-fighting plan is to recognize the central bank “has the primary responsibility to control inflation.” He took a shot at President Trump for “demeaning” the Fed. On the other hand, Biden said he will respect the Fed and its independence.
Producer prices continue to rise at a near-record pace, further undercutting the notion that we’ve reached “peak inflation.”
Consumer sentiment plunged to record lows in June. The plummeting consumer sentiment numbers surprised mainstream analysts but they shouldn’t have given Americans are taking a pay cut month after month thanks to red-hot inflation.
Inflation wasn’t transitory.
And inflation hasn’t peaked.
It’s more like peak inflation was transitory.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for May came out this morning. The projection was for another hot headline number but some relief in core CPI. This would seem to indicate we’ve passed peak inflation. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharey explains why “good news” in the CPI data would be bad news for inflation. Then he reacts to the data in real-time. (Hint — it wasn’t good news.)
There are a number of signals that the US economy is getting weaker even as inflation gets stronger.
In other words, we are hurtling toward stagflation.
Consumer debt climbed to a new all-time record in April as Americans continue to cope with rapidly rising prices.
Total outstanding consumer debt rose by $38 billion in April, reaching a new record of $4.57 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. Total consumer debt was up 10.1% in April. It was the third straight month that consumer debt increased by $30 billion or more.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on Tucker Carlson to talk about inflation, the economy, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s admission that she was wrong about inflation. There’s an economic hurricane on the horizon and Peter said it’s going to be a Cat 5.
The May jobs report was widely regarded as strong. The US economy added 390,000 jobs, according to the latest data. But a deeper dive into that data reveals that the labor market might not be as strong as the mainstream spin is leading you to believe. Even with all the new jobs, hiring slowed in five out of eight sectors.
Why haven’t gold and silver rallied as one would expect in such a high inflation environment? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey delves into some of the psychology driving the markets and explains why it could be blinding people to just how serious the economic situation has become. He also reports some news that indicates some people may be starting to figure it out.
