The Fed continues to talk tough about fighting inflation. And the markets seem to be listening. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff said you need to look at what the Fed is actually doing. And it’s not doing much.
When we got the March CPI data last month, the mainstream crooned that it looked like we were at peak inflation. This was wishful thinking. The April CPI data that came out this week, along with the producer price numbers, indicate that we’re still climbing that inflation mountain. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey digs into the data and discusses how it could impact the trajectory of Fed monetary policy and the economy.
Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation. Wages are up but consumers are worse off. Average hourly earnings have risen by 5.5% over the last year. But factoring in rising costs, real earnings are down 2.6%. So, how are Americans making ends meet?
They’re charging it.
The March Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 8.5% annually, the highest since December 1981. But the mainstream narrative was that inflation had probably peaked because core inflation, stripping out more volatile food and energy, “only” rose by 0.3%. Mainstream pundits reasoned that the oil shock in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine primarily drove the huge 1.2% month-on-month CPI gain. And since core CPI appeared to be slowing, inflation was cooling.
The April CPI data undercuts this narrative.
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for April came in higher than expectations at 0.34% MoM and 8.28% YoY. The main driver for the MoM slowdown was a fall in Energy prices.
We’ve been told inflation is caused by greedy corporations. We’ve been told that inflation is Putin’s fault. Other people just want to blame COVID-19. But are any of these really the root cause of inflation?
Economist Dr. Antony P. Mueller says none of these excuses really account for the rash of rising prices we’ve seen in recent months. At its core, this inflation is caused by a deeply flawed monetary system that allows central banks to create money out of thin air.
Last week, the Fed raised interest rates by 0.5%. It was the biggest rate increase since the year 2000. But it was hardly aggressive in light of the current bout of inflation. Not only that, Jerome Powell took a future 75 basis point hike off the table. In his podcast, Peter Schiff argued that no matter what the Fed does, it has already lost the inflation fight.
Jerome Powell began hinting that inflation might be a problem last August. In November, Powell retired the word “transitory.” But here we are in May and the Federal Reserve still hasn’t done anything substantive to address the inflation problem.
And now it may be too late. It’s probably time to buckle up for more inflation – and perhaps a crashing economy.
Jerome Powell and other policymakers at the Fed keep telling us they can raise interest rates and slay the inflation dragon because the economy is strong. But these central bankers have a long history of being wrong. And as host Mike Maharrey explains in this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, the recent GDP numbers undercut this latest Fed narrative. He also talks about a startling confession from the IMF director and Q1 gold demand.
The Fed insists it can tighten monetary policy and tackle inflation without hurting the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and other central bankers claim the economy is strong enough to handle higher interest rates. Peter Schiff said this is just another in a long line of arrogant miscalculations by the Fed.
