Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, October 18, 2021
Inflation Or Deflation – End Result Is Still Depression / Economics / Economic Depression
By: Kelsey_Williams
INFLATION OR DEFLATION
The debate continues but not much has been said that clarifies the issue for ordinary investors. What follows in this article should help.
Inflation is the debasement of money by government and central banks. The Federal Reserve and all central banks practice inflation by expanding the supply of money and credit continuously and intentionally.
This debasement of the money results in effects that are harmful and unpredictable. One of these effects of inflation is an unquantifiable loss of purchasing power in the money itself.
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Sunday, October 17, 2021
US Economy and Stock Market Addicted to Deficit Spending / Economics / Inflation
By: Nadeem_Walayat
What to know what's driving the stock market into the stratosphere? US Deficit Spending! (actually twin deficits including Trade).
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Tuesday, October 12, 2021
The Demand Shock of 2022 / Economics / US Economy
By: Michael_Pento
Investors are growing cautious as we approach the fourth quarter, and their trepidation is justified. Here’s a brief summary of the situation: there is a potential global financial crisis stemming from the Chinese property market meltdown, supply chain bottlenecks are growing worse, Q3 Earnings warnings are being reported from many large corporations, interest rates are rising, inflation is at a 40-year high, tax hikes are coming in ’22, and the threat of a U.S. debt default still hangs in the air until the end of November.The macroeconomic situation today is one of stagflation. Meaning, inflation rates are higher than normal at the same time GDP growth is slowing. To this point, the data shows that 6.2 million people lost their benefits in the week of September 11tt, as most government pandemic unemployment relief programs expired. These people all need to find a job, and quickly, to supplant that huge government weekly stipend that is now gone. Instead, we find that weekly layoffs are consistently higher than any other time since before the pandemic all the way back through 2015. And, we see that only 194k net new jobs were added during the month of September.
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Sunday, October 03, 2021
Powell: Inflation Might Not Be Transitory, After All / Economics / Inflation
By: P_Radomski_CFA
At a panel discussion, Fed Chair finally admitted that inflation could be more (!) long-lasting than expected. What does it mean? Hawks. Lots of them.
Capitulation
With Fed Chairman Jerome Powell finally having his ‘come-to-Jesus’ moment on Sep. 29, the central bank chief’s skittish words helped light a fire under the USD Index. For context, I’ve been warning for months that Powell remains materially behind the inflation curve. And with his indecisive speech upending the Fed’s confidence game, the gambit is showing signs of unraveling.
Speaking at an ECB panel discussion on Sep. 29, he said:
“The current inflation spike is really a consequence of supply constraints meeting very strong demand. And that is all associated with the reopening of the economy, which is a process that will have a beginning, middle and an end. It’s very difficult to say how big the effects will be in the meantime or how long they last.”
For context, first it was “base effects,” then it was “transitory” and now “it’s very difficult to say.”
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Fed To Taper into Weakening Economy / Economics / US Economy
By: Michael_Pento
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will soon announce the date for tapering its record-setting QE program, despite weakening jobs data.
The Non-farm Payroll Report for August severely disappointed Wall Street's expectations by coming in at just 235,000 net new jobs. Many on Wall Street—because they always look for a silver lining—are now trying to twist the near half-million jobs miss into something beneficial for stocks. This is because they claim the Fed's tapering of its asset purchase program will be delayed.
Nevertheless, the Fed is growing uncomfortable with the pace of stock and home price appreciation. And, doesn't think ending QE equates to a tightening of monetary policy. Of course, the Fed doesn't want to kill the economy by raising interest rates too rapidly. However, they have become very much aware that continuing to print $120 billion each month and further inflating the stock and real estate market has become absolutely dangerous. Inflating asset prices further and boosting CPI from this point would likely soon force the Fed into a regime of rapidly raising interest rates, which would kill the recovery and engender a severe recession.
Tuesday, September 07, 2021
Weak August Payrolls: Why We Should Care / Economics / Employment
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
A disappointing nonfarm payrolls report came. If the Fed postpones the tapering announcement considerably, gold might be able to rally for longer.They say that September is a good time for gold. Indeed, historically, gold used to shine during the ninth month, and the yellow metal also started this year’s September on a good note. As the chart below shows, it jumped above $1,800 on the last day of August, and it has continued its rebound since then.
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Friday, September 03, 2021
Prepare Now for Brutal Economic Austerity -- Here's Why / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: EWI
Here's what's holding together a "global house of cards"
When financial times get tough, you hear the phrases "tightening our belts," "cutting back" or "making do with less."
Those are common phrases to describe the word "austerity."
If spending and borrowing had been done with moderation when times were good, then the tough times would not be as tough -- or austere.
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Thursday, September 02, 2021
China’s theme park economy thriving, despite pandemic times / Economics / China Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
Against odds, theme parks are expanding in China, thanks to rising disposable income, investor confidence, and long-term opportunities.On September 1, Universal Beijing Resort, the largest of its kind in the world, will start its trial run. It is the most recent international chain in China’s thriving theme park industry.
Over 2008 to 2017, total theme park attendance increased at 13 percent annually. Today there are more than 200 theme parks in the Chinese mainland and their numbers continue to increase.
In an era of misguided global divisions, the impressive rise of theme parks in China shows the brighter promise of foreign investment and Sino-American cooperation.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2021
The Great Deflation of 2022 / Economics / Deflation
By: Michael_Pento
It is not very surprising to me that nearly every talking head on Wall Street is convinced inflation has now become a permanent feature in the U.S. economy. This is because most mainstream economists have no clue what is the progenitor of inflation. They have been inculcated to believe inflation is the result of a wage-price spiral caused by a low rate of unemployment.
In truth, inflation is all about the destruction of confidence in a fiat currency’s purchasing power. And there is no better way to do that than for the government to massively increase the supply of money and place it directly into the hands of its citizenry. That is exactly what occurred in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. government handed out the equivalent of $50,000 to every American family in various forms of loans, grants, stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment, tax rebates, and debt forbearance measures. In other words, helicopter money and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) were deployed—and in a big way. The result was the largest increase of inflation in 40 years.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Inflation Properly Defined / Economics / Inflation
By: Antonius_Aquinas
The use or rather misuse of language has always been an effective tool of politicians to enact their agendas. George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” brilliantly showed, in his day, how language was being manipulated for all sorts of totalitarian measures:
Read full article... Read full article...Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful
and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase — some jackboot, Achilles’ heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse — into the dustbin, where it belongs.*
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Everything Peaked in 1980 – The Waning Effects Of Inflation / Economics / Inflation
By: Kelsey_Williams
EVERYTHING PEAKED IN 1980
Both gold and crude oil peaked at all-time highs in 1980. Those highs are still intact when the effects of inflation are accounted for. Below are the charts for both gold and crude oil…
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Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Why the Fed is Wrong About 'transitory' Inflation / Economics / Inflation
By: Richard_Mills
If rising food prices are ruining your appetite, you’re not alone.
Costs of a number of grocery staples have been rising all year, including some that haven’t gone up in decades, such as peanut butter. Meats are seeing large increases, with the price of chicken climbing 8%, and pork and beef increasing about 5%.
According to Statistics Canada, via CTV News, two breakfast ‘staples,’ coffee and peanut butter have gone up significantly since January, a respective 17% and 6%. Canada’s Food Price Report predicts that prices will increase 5% this year, adding almost $700 to the average Canadian family’s grocery bill.
In the United States, US consumer prices hit their highest level in 13 years in May, jumping 5% from May 2020. The US Department of Labor says rising costs of meat products and baked goods led the surge in food prices.
“We’re in a period of unprecedented commodity inflation,” Unilever CEO Alan Jope told investors in early June.
According to Business Insider, US food prices are rising in tandem with broader inflation, with the CPI hitting 5.4% in June. Prices are climbing due to key commodities becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, shipping delays, labor shortages (for example in meat packing plants, hit hard by covid-19) and severe droughts in a number of countries (more on that below).
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Thursday, August 05, 2021
Political Hacks Concoct Excuses for Their Inflation / Economics / Inflation
By: MoneyMetals
Jerome Powell, after last week’s FOMC meeting, said inflation has run hotter than expected. However, he wants to assure Americans that the destruction of their dollars’ purchasing power is temporary.
His diagnosis? Ballooning demand for goods and services when the U.S. economy reopened from COVID shutdowns drove prices higher.
Rest easy, folks. Prices will stop surging as soon as demand moderates and supply catches up!
That’s the official line, anyway.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2021
How Will Remote Work Impact the U.K. economy? / Economics / UK Economy
By: Sumeet_Manhas
When the pandemic hit the U.K., millions of knowledge and office workers were forced to work from home. Regarding productivity and work/life balance, remote work has proved to be a success in many instances. The consequences for the overall economy may not be so favourable if remote working becomes a permanent arrangement.
Historically, national-scale crises have a tendency to revolutionise societies and the way that we work. In the fourteenth century, for example, the Black Death plagued (literally) Europe. Approximately one-third of Europe’s population died from the plague. As a result, many historians believe that labour-saving devices such as the printing press were developed to adapt to the lack of workers. Some historians have also theorised that the Black Death led to the expeditions into “new lands” that occurred in the decades that followed. Perhaps travelling on a boat to parts unknown seemed relatively safe following a pandemic that killed around 25 million people.
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Monday, July 05, 2021
China's xiaokang prosperity source of global hope / Economics / China Economy
By: MoneyMetals
Amid the centenary festivities, China’s success in development shows how peace and stability can foster sustained development, prosperity - and hope.At the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, declared the completion of the goal of building China into “a moderately prosperous society in all respects.”
The achievement of this quest for xiaokang, which ensures basic security and welfare, is predicated on four decades of reforms and opening-up policies.
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Saturday, July 03, 2021
Central Banks RAMPANT MONEY PRINTING INFLATION BIG PICTURE! US Trending Towards Hyperinflation / Economics / Inflation
By: Nadeem_Walayat
I know it can get a bit tiring to hear me bang on with the mantra of rampant money printing inflation, BUT one can tend to get lost in the detail i.e. looking at individual stocks and assets and forget the BIG PICTURE which really is one of RAMPANT MONEY PRINTING INFLATION!
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Friday, July 02, 2021
US Labor Shortage May Be Permanent / Economics / Employment
By: Patrick_Watson
According to some business owners and Wall Street pundits, US employers can’t hire enough people because unemployment benefits are too high. We’re paying people not to work, they say.Certainly, some people who could work are milking the system. That’s sad, but is it the only reason all those jobs are unfilled? Probably not.
Nonetheless, several governors have decided to end the federally funded enhanced benefits. Instead of the planned September expiration, they will now disappear as soon as next week in some states.
If, in fact, benefits are what’s keeping people from working, labor shortages should ease in the states that end them. I think there’s more to the story, though. This problem was already there before those extra benefits. It’s more the result of larger trends that aren’t stopping. If anything, they are getting worse.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2021
The “Long COVID” Economy / Economics / US Economy
By: Patrick_Watson
According to some analysts, higher inflation is on its way. Americans will spend like crazy and drive prices higher as the pandemic recedes.That’s the theory. It may be right, for a while, but we also have other problems. For one, the pandemic hasn’t ended; it’s simply become optional.
Most US adults can now “opt out” by getting vaccinated. The shots, while not perfect, are proving highly effective. Unfortunately, many are opting to stay vulnerable. We also can’t yet vaccinate children under 12.
This may be an economically significant problem soon. But even if the virus disappears, we are going to spend years repairing the economic damage already done… and more may be coming.
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Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Demand-Driven Price Hikes Are Underway / Economics / Inflation
By: John_Mauldin
James Bianco, president of Bianco Research, thinks most of the near-term inflation he foresees will be demand-driven. The fact that a lot of people have a lot of spending money will push prices even higher.At Mauldin Economics' 2021 Strategic Investment Conference, he posed the question: Where did this cash come from? Check out this chart...
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Sunday, June 27, 2021
Two Reasons Hyperinflation Is Unlikely / Economics / HyperInflation
By: Kelsey_Williams
The correct definition of inflation is “the debasement of money by government and central banks“.
The effects of inflation show up in the form of higher prices for all goods and services.
Hyperinflation is defined as “out-of-control general price increases in an economy, …typically measuring more than 50% per month.” (source)
There are two specific reasons why hyperinflation re: out of control general price increases for all goods and services, possible US dollar collapse, etc., is unlikely.
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