We got another round of hotter than expected CPI data this week. The mainstream financial media is spinning this as good news. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs into the CPI data without the rose-colored glasses. He also talks about an announcement by a major restaurant chain that may well be a canary in the coal mine. His conclusion – in the end, economics wins.
With some positive economic data coming out this week, investors suddenly went bullish on the economy again and decided that the Fed is surely going to deal with inflation now. Will it though? In this Friday Gold Wrap Podcast episode, host Mike Maharrey speculates about the Fed’s next move. He also looks ahead and talks about the long-term future of the dollar. Can we assume it will always be the reserve currency?
In many ways, it appears the economy is beginning to recover from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic. GDP growth is way up. The stock market is soaring. A lot of people are optimistic. But during an appearance on the Ben Shapiro Show, Peter Schiff said this isn’t a real recovery, and he explains how all of the government “help” is actually wrecking the economy, distorting the job market and destroying the dollar.
The economy is actually sicker now than it was before COVID. And what’s really been hurting it was not the disease but the government’s cure.”
Millions of people are collecting unemployment. Meanwhile, businesses across the country are having a hard time filling positions.
In what kind of world does this make sense?
America’s labor market is a mess and riddled with incongruency.
On the one hand, businesses can’t find workers. Help wanted signs hang in windows across the country. A McDonald’s franchisee in Tampa is offering bonuses just for showing up for an interview.
Meanwhile, unemployment just ticked up to 6.1%.
In what kind of world does this make sense?
Everybody expected the jobs report last Friday to show a big increase in employment. It didn’t happen.
Instead of the 978,000 new jobs created in April that economists expected, nonfarm payroll increased by just 266,000. On top of that, the Labor Department revised the March number down from 916,000 to 770,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1%.
As Peter Schiff put it in his podcast, you don’t need a job to spend printed money handed out by the government.
Unemployment is at 6%. Tens of thousands of people apply for unemployment every week (744,000 last week alone). The US government is spending trillions of dollars to “stimulate” the economy. But restaurants in northeast Florida can’t find enough workers to open every day.
Does this sound a nutty to you as it does to me?
The economy is recovering quickly! Just look at the rebounding jobs market. But in a recent podcast, Peter Schiff poured cold water on the notion that falling unemployment is necessarily a sign of an impending economic boom. After all, people going back to work do not reflect actual job creation.
The Labor Department released its February jobs numbers on Friday. The numbers were better than expected and the official unemployment rate ticked down. The mainstream spun it as more good news and another sign that the economy is on the upswing. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff broke down the numbers and came to a completely different conclusion – this was not a strong jobs report.
When unemployment began to quickly shrink over the summer as governments loosened up on the economic lockdowns in response to COVID-19, everybody got giddy and assumed we were in for a quick recovery. But we’ve been saying that the quick turnaround was an illusion and that the lockdowns caused deep wounds in the labor market. The numbers are starting to hint at this reality.
