Social Security recipients will be getting a big raise in 2023. That’s good news if you’re receiving benefits from the program, but not so great if you’re hoping inflation will abate any time soon.
The Social Security Administration recently announced an 8.7% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for next year. That goes on top of a substantial 5.9% COLA for 2022. The 2023 increase is the largest in 40 years.
As Peter Schiff put it in a recent podcast, the inflation insanity continues.
We got the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data and it once again came in hotter than expected. Month-on-month, CPI was up 0.4%. That was double the 0.2% expectation. On an annual basis, the CPI was 8.2%.
The September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data came out on Thursday. Once again, it was “hotter than expected,” despite the Federal Reserve hiking rates by over 3% since March. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the CPI data in the context of the Fed’s inflation fight and concludes “this is what losing looks like.”
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for September came in at 0.38%, dropping to 8.25% YoY. Median expectations had been for 0.3% MoM and 8.1% YoY so the hot number hammered markets on the open, especially precious metals.
The markets climbed their way back as of publishing, indicating the investors may be starting to understand the Fed’s predicament even though the probability of a 75bps hike in November is now a near certainty at 99%.
On the surface, the September job numbers looked pretty good. The economy continues to add jobs and the unemployment rate fell. But these headline numbers paper over underlying problems in the economy.
While President Biden brags about job growth, the average American is working more just to maintain last year’s standard of living.
Producer price data for September was bad news for people looking for relief from rising prices.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 0.4%, doubling the 0.2% projected increase, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Credit card debt continues to spiral higher as consumers struggle with rising prices and depleted savings.
In August, revolving credit increased by a staggering 18.1% as total consumer debt surged to a record $4.68 trillion, according to the latest consumer credit data from the Federal Reserve.
It’s easy to look back over the post-pandemic era and say the Federal Reserve stayed too loose for too long in the face of rising CPI. For months, the central bank ignored the inflation problem, claiming it was transitory. But as Peter Schiff pointed out in a podcast, the loose money problem isn’t anything new. It’s been going on for decades.
Some people in the mainstream have been talking about gold’s demise as an important financial asset. Meanwhile, central banks continue to buy gold. What are the gold naysayers missing? Peter Schiff appeared on Fox Business with Charles Payne to talk about the price of gold and why some investors are starting to realize they’ll need gold as the Fed loses its inflation fight.
Last week, the Bank of England threw in the towel on its inflation fight and launched a quantitative easing program. Why? Because something broke in the UK financial system. That led to a rally in stocks and precious metals this week as many in the US realized the Fed might be closer to a pivot than previously thought. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about why he thinks something is going to eventually break in the US economy.
