The central bankers at the Federal Reserve continue to talk tough about fighting inflation. But is it a fight they can win?
The numbers say no.
The four-week win streak in stocks came to an end last week with all of the major indexes down significantly on Friday. As Peter explained in his podcast, it appears the markets are coming to terms with the fact the Powell Pivot may not come as quickly as anticipated. That means interest rates may go higher as the inflation fight continues. But Peter says the markets still don’t get the big picture. The Fed can’t win this inflation fight without wrecking the bubble economy.
It was a relatively slow news week in the financial realm. For once, the Fed didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy. So, Friday Gold Wrap Host Mike Maharrey took advantage of the lull. Along with covering some economic data and media spin, he hit on a couple of subjects he hasn’t been able to get to in recent weeks, including the fatal flaw in Keynesian economics and the prospect of manipulation in the gold and silver markets.
The mainstream has suddenly discovered price movements impact retail sales.
For months, retail sales generally came in higher than expected. And for months the mainstream financial punditry ignored inflation and told us this signaled a strong economy. But in July, retail sales unexpectedly fell flat. Now the mainstream financial punditry claims this signals a strong economy.
Fifty-one years ago this week, President Richard Nixon slammed shut the “gold window” and eliminated the last vestige of the gold standard.
Nixon ordered Treasury Secretary John Connally to uncouple gold from its fixed $35 price and suspended the ability of foreign banks to directly exchange dollars for gold. During a national television address, on Aug. 15, 1971, Nixon promised the action would be temporary in order to “defend the dollar against the speculators,” but this turned out to be a lie. The president’s move permanently and completely severed the dollar from gold and turned it into a pure fiat currency.
The CPI fell modestly in July, but prices remained near 40-year highs at 8.5%. Meanwhile, President Biden did a victory lap, and Congress passed an “Inflation Reduction Act” that will only make inflation worse.
It’s easy to look at inflation talk as political banter and wonky economic theorizing, but in fact, it hurts real people. As Brazilian economist André Marques explains, it makes us all poorer.
Peter Schiff appeared on the Newsmax Saturday Report along with former Rep. Peter King (R-NY) to talk about President Joe Biden’s unwarranted inflation victory lap.
The CPI for July came in slightly cooler than June’s sizzling 9.1%. But even at 8.5%, CPI remains near 40-year highs. But Biden focused on the unchanged month-on-month CPI to declare victory over inflation and claimed he’s building “an economy that works for everyone.”
The CPI cooled in July. The White House and others in the mainstream continue to insist there is no recession. Is everything looking up?
Peter Schiff was on Fox Business with Liz Claman, Kenny Polcari (Slatestone Wealth Peak Market Strategist), and Teddy Weisberg (Seaport Securities) to discuss the Fed’s attempt to fight the inflation it caused. Peter said we haven’t seen peak inflation, and on top of that, the recession will get worse.
The Consumer Price Index data for July cooled even more than expected. The question is how will the Federal Reserve play this? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the CPI data, talks about the Fed reaction, and speculates about the Fed’s next move and its impact on the economy.
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for July came in nearly flat at -0.03%. This was on the heels of a blisteringly hot June number of 1.35%.
While inflation did surprise to the downside, it had been expected to be much lower due to the fall in oil and drop in gasoline prices. The YoY number also fell as the reading from last July of 0.46% fell off the calendar.
