The dollar rallied and gold sold off on Monday after the March labor report came in at expectations and comments by the new Bank of Japan governor indicated he plans to continue the country’s ultra-loose monetary policy. In his podcast, Peter explains how traders continued to get both jobs and inflation wrong.
If you have any skepticism of government narratives at all, you have to question last week’s non-farm payroll report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given the number of layoffs and the general slowing of the economy, the notion that 517,000 jobs were created in January just doesn’t make sense.
Turns out that your skepticism is warranted.
Why is there a labor shortage in the US?
In a nutshell, a lot of people have simply dropped out of the labor market. They’re not working.
But why?
The headlines keep telling us the US has a robust job market, but a deeper dive into the data tells a much different story.
Have you ever had a gut feeling that the labor reports put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are hinky?
If so, trust your gut.
According to the BLS, the economy added 263,000 jobs in September, which was slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 275,000. More significantly, the trends reveal a slowing labor market.
Education and Health led the way with strong hiring along with Leisure and Hospitality.
The Fed continues to talk tough about fighting inflation. During his Jackson Hole speech, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will “use our tools forcefully” to attack inflation. Powell even promised some pain.
What exactly does Powell mean by “pain?”
Ron Paul pointed out that Powell wants to “soften the labor market.” In other words, he wants you to get fired.
The July non-farm payroll report came out much stronger than anticipated. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added 528,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5%. The narrative was that this blockbuster employment report proves that we’re not in a recession.
In his podcast, Peter Schiff broke down the data and reveals the truth behind the “strong job market” hype.
Despite back-to-back contractions in GDP, President Joe Biden, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and all of their supporters in the corporate media insist the US economy isn’t in a recession. But the only data they ever point to in order to back up their assertion is the “strong” labor market.
The problem with this spin is the labor market is a lagging indicator and it’s starting to show cracks.
The January jobs report came in much stronger than expected. According to the labor department, the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month. This was significantly better than the 150,000 job projection. But there was some bad inflation news buried in the Labor Department data.
