The annual rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February came in at 6%. This was down from the 6.4% annual increase charted in January. The eighth straight monthly decline in CPI seems to have restored faith that the Federal Reserve is winning the inflation fight. But everybody should probably stop and remember that the target is 2%.
Six percent is a lot bigger than 2%.
On June 14, 2022, Peter Schiff appeared on Ingraham Angle, and he said, “Thanks to the Federal Reserve, everybody has so much debt that we can’t afford to pay an interest rate high enough to fight inflation. But it is going to be high enough to cause a massive recession and another financial crisis that’s worse than the one we had in 2008.”
On March 13, 2023, Peter was on Ingraham Angle again, this time to talk about the beginning of that financial crisis.
February has historically been a big budget deficit month, but the Biden administration still managed to overachieve and run the second-largest February deficit ever. The only time the US government has run a February deficit bigger than the $262.4 billion shortfall last month was in February 2021 in the midst of the COVID stimulus.
This raises an important question: between a budding financial crisis and a US government spending problem, how is the Federal Reserve ever going to get price inflation back to its mythical 2% target?
As we start to sort through the fallout of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the government’s reaction to it, the next question is: what’s next?
Government officials and mainstream pundits insist everything is fine now. They say quick government action averted a crisis. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff said this is really just the beginning of the next financial crisis.
In the wake of two bank failures, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury announced a bank bailout program.
Last week, Silicon Valley Bank was shuttered by federal authorities after the bank suffered significant losses selling bonds in order to raise capital. When that news hit, depositors rushed to pull funds from the bank, making it functionally insolvent. Then over the weekend, federal authorities shut down Signature Bank.
There has been a lot of talk about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) lately. Supporters tell you they will provide a safe, secure, convenient alternative to cash. But in this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs deeper and explains that CBDCs are actually about more government control. He also talks about how Jerome Powell talked and tanked the markets this week.
During testimony on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank may have to raise interest rates higher than previously expected to bring down price inflation.
Despite the speed of Fed hiking and the enormous amount of debt in the US economy, most people in the mainstream seem convinced the central bank can keep hiking rates without breaking the economy.
Economist Thorsten Polleit disagrees.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell performed some “open mouth operations” on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
Powell talked and the markets freaked out.
The markets still seem to believe the Federal Reserve can ratchet price inflation back down to 2% while bringing the economy to a relatively soft landing. In his podcast, Peter Schiff throws cold water on this hopeful narrative. He goes through the economic data that came out last week shows that all roads appear to lead to a hard landing and higher inflation.
Despite the hotter-than-expected CPI data for January, most people still seem confident that the Federal Reserve can win the inflation fight, drive CPI back to 2% in relatively short order, and then return to the easy monetary policy we all have come to expect. Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey does not share this optimism. In this episode, he outlines three reasons the Fed won’t win the inflation fight.