Tag Archive: inflation

Produzentenfenster Globale Rezessionsuhr

2022-04-13

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2022-04-13

German optimism was predictably, inevitably sent crashing in March and April 2022. According to that country’s ZEW survey, an uptick in general optimism from November 2021 to February 2022 collided with the reality of Russian armored vehicles trying to snake their way down to Kiev. Whereas sentiment had rebounded from an October low of 22.3, blamed on whichever of the coronas, by February the index had moved upward to 54.3.

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New Day, Same as the Old Day

2022-04-12

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2022-04-12

Overview:  It is a new day, but with the continued rise in interest rates and weaker equities, it feels like yesterday.  Only China and Hong Kong among the major markets in Asia Pacific resisted the pull lower.  Europe's Stoxx 600 is off by more than 0.5% led by health care and real estate. It is the fourth loss in five sessions and brings the benchmark to its lowest level since March 18.  US futures are flattish. 

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Russia’s “gold peg”: Lessons for Western investors

2022-04-12

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2022-04-12

Putin
It is undeniable that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has polarized Western societies to an extent unseen in decades in any other foreign conflict. For over a month, we have been bombarded unceasingly by all mainstream media sources with reports and stories about Russia’s invasion and this conflict has already created deep social rifts in many other nations, and EU members in particular.

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Concocting Inventory

2022-04-11

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2022-04-11

The Census Bureau provided some updated inventory estimates about wholesalers, including its annual benchmark revisions. As to the latter, not a whole lot was changed, a small downward revision right around the peak (early 2021) of the supply shock which is consistent with the GDP estimates for when inventory levels were shrinking fast.

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Equities Finding a Bid in Europe After Sliding in Asia Pacific

2022-04-08

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2022-04-08

Overview:  The capital markets are calmer today.  The market is digesting the FOMC minutes, where officials tipped an aggressive path to shrink the balance sheet and confirmed an "expeditious" campaign to lift the Fed funds rate to neutrality.  Benchmark 10-year yields are softer, with the US off a couple basis points to 2.58%.  European yields are 1-3 bp lower. 

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Cantillon effect: Who’s paying the highest price?

2022-04-06

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2022-04-06

Every time we hear government officials announce their big spending plans, their new welfare programs and their ambitious “job creating” schemes, they always present them as being in defense of the poorest and the most marginalized members of our societies. In coordination with their central bankers, they print and spend new money at will, claiming that it is all for the benefit of the weakest among us and that all the freshly created funds will...

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The Short, Sweet Income Case For Ugly Inversion(s), Too

2022-04-04

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2022-04-04

A nod to just how backward and upside down the world is now. The economic data everyone is made to pay attention to, payrolls, that one is, in my view, irrelevant. As is the consumer price estimates from earlier this week, the PCE Deflator. That’s another one which receives vast amounts of interest even though it is already old news.

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Weekly Market Pulse: The Cure For High Prices

2022-03-31

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2022-03-31

There’s an old Wall Street maxim that the cure for high commodity prices is high commodity prices. As prices rise two things will generally limit the scope of the increase. Demand will wane as consumers just use less or find substitutes. Supply will also increase as the companies that extract these raw materials open new mines, grow more crops or drill new wells.

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BOJ Steps-Up its Efforts, US 2-10 Curve steepens, and the Dollar Softens

2022-03-30

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2022-03-30

Overview:  A pullback in US yields yesterday and the Bank of Japan's stepped-up efforts to defend the Yield Curve Control policy helped extend the yen's recovery.  This spurred profit-taking on Japanese stocks, where the Nikkei had rallied around 11% over the past two weeks. 

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We Can Only Hope For Another (bond) Massacre

2022-03-30

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2022-03-30

To begin with, the economy today is absolutely nothing like it had been almost thirty years ago. That fact in and of itself should end the discussion right here. However, comparisons will be made and it does no harm to review them.I’m talking about 1994, or, more specifically, the eleven months between late February 1994 and early February 1995.

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Inversion Is The Real March Madness, Just Don’t Take It Literally

2022-03-22

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2022-03-22

With such low levels of self-awareness, it isn’t surprising that the FOMC’s members continue to pour gasoline on the already-blazing curve fire. March Madness is supposed to be on the courts of college basketball, instead it is playing out more vividly across all financial markets.

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The Fed Has No Idea What’s Coming Next!

2022-03-18

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2022-03-18

We will let you know what we are doing once we know what we are doing was the message from the Federal Reserve statement and Chair Powell’s press conference that followed.

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Consumer Prices And The Historical Pain(s)

2022-03-12

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2022-03-12

The 1947-48 experience was truly painful, maybe even terrifying. The US and Europe had just come out of a decade when the worst deflationary consequences were so widespread that the period immediately following quickly erupted into the worst conflagration in human history.

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Gold Gives You Personal Sovereignty

2022-03-09

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2022-03-09

Dave Lukas of Misfit Entrepreneur invites Stephen Flood, CEO of GoldCore, to the show. Dave and Stephen talk about what people should know before investing in gold and silver, the present state of inflation, central banking, and the monetary system. Further, he explains why gold is still your safe-haven asset and how it provides you with personal sovereignty. They also talk about cryptocurrencies and their future. Stephen also...

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SWIFT Ban: A Game Changer for Russia?

2022-03-04

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2022-03-04

As part of the sanctions against Russia, seven Russian banks have been cut off from SWIFT. We start by discussing what SWIFT is, and then the implications of completely cutting Russia out of SWIFT. What is SWIFT and Why Russia is Being Excluded SWIFT – The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is a messaging system that links more than 11,000 banks in 200 countries. The system doesn’t move actual...

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The Red Warning

2022-02-24

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2022-02-24

Now it’s the Russian’s fault. Belligerence surrounding Donbas and Ukraine, raw materials and energy supplies to Europe threatened by Putin’s coiled bear. Why wouldn’t markets grow worried?There’s always a reason why we shouldn’t take these things seriously, or quickly dismiss them out of hand as the temporary product of whichever political fear-of-the-day.

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The ‘Fed Put’ – Gone Until There’s Blood in the Streets

2022-01-30

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2022-01-30

The ‘Fed put’ – gone until there’s blood in the streets Well, it’s happening.  Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies are sharply down, along with equity markets in many advanced economies. And the Federal Reserve (the U.S. Central Bank) statement and press conference on Wednesday didn’t indicate any backing down from raising interest rates, maybe as soon as the March meeting. The Fed’s stance pivot from ‘the economy needs...

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After Today’s FOMC, Yield Curve Is Already As Flat As It Was In Mar ’18 **Without A Single Rate Hike Yet**

2022-01-28

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2022-01-28

It’s not hard to reason why there continues to be this conflict of interest (rates). On the one hand, impacting the short end of the yield curve, the unemployment rate has taken a tight grip on the FOMC’s limited imagination. The rate hikes are coming and the markets like all mainstream commentary agree that as it stands there’s nothing on the horizon to stop Jay Powell’s hawkishness.

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European Energy Crisis: 4 Things You MUST Know!

2022-01-23

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2022-01-23

European Energy Crisis: 4 Reasons You MUST Know! European households are facing rising prices on many goods and services, but one particular standout is electricity and gas bills.

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Good Time To Go Fish(er)ing Around The Yield Curve

2022-01-21

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2022-01-21

It should be as simple as it sounds. Lower LT UST yields, less growth and inflation. Thus, higher LT UST yields, more growth and inflation. Right? If nominal levels are all there is to it, then simplicity rules the interpretation. Visiting with George Gammon last week, he confessed to committing this sin of omission.

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