The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released two inflation reports highlighting inflation figures for December 2023. Here’s what they showed:
October CPI coming in cooler than expected ramped up expectations that the Federal Reserve is at the end of its inflation fight. In fact, many analysts now expect the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in 2024.
Looking at the bigger picture, inflation’s apparent retreat boosted mainstream belief that the economy will glide to a “soft landing.” With a lot of economic data weakening, the markets anticipate that the Fed will proactively cut rates to preempt a recession and prevent a crash landing. The thinking is as soon as it sees the economy coming in for a landing, it’s going to cut rates to ensure that landing is soft.
Holiday shoppers plan on cutting back on spending and piling on even more debt this year, and nearly a quarter of Americans still haven’t paid off their debt from last year’s holiday spending spree.
These were just a few revelations in a recent WalletHub survey that indicates American consumers aren’t quite as “resilient” as pundits and government people would have you believe.
The latest buzzword in the mainstream financial media is “soft landing.” Everybody seems convinced the Fed has beaten inflation, and that it has completely avoided pushing the economy into a recession. According to the mainstream narrative, we may see a bit of an economic slowdown in the months ahead, but a recession is pretty much off the table. In his podcast, Peter Schiff explains why a soft landing is impossible.
The Federal Reserve has pushed interest rates to over 5%. At the most recent FOMC meeting, it indicated that it may have to hold rates higher for longer. But the mainstream remains unconcerned. The narrative is that the Fed has successfully raised rates to fight inflation and is now guiding the economy to a “soft landing.”
In a nutshell, the mainstream financial media seems convinced the US economy has dodged a recession. Meanwhile, the average American seems less than convinced.
So, who’s right?
