So the Biden White House put on their jogging shoes and took a victory lap last week because “. . . IT IS WORKING!”
“It” is, of course, the admin’s brilliant inflation reduction plan – a highly secret document, apparently – that resulted in PPI (Producer Price Index – the price of things on the manufacturers’ dock before it arrives at the consumer) “falling” from 8.4% in September 2022 to 8.0% in October.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right?
The markets were gaga today with an inflation report of 7.7% (annual rate) down from 8.2% the prior month (40-year high) and a monthly rate of 0.4%.
Those are the numbers, but folks seem unable to understand how they apply. So, please allow me to provide an example.
1. Suppose a year ago, a dozen eggs cost $2.00. With me? Continue reading
This week OPEC+ at its 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held in Vienna agreed to decrease crude oil production by 2,000,000 barrels a day which will have obvious implications — bad implications — for the rising price of oil, increasing inflation, and the global economy.
Taking 2,000,000 bbl/day out of the pipeline will:
1. Dramatically increase oil prices to the $125 – 150/bbl range.
2. Add another jolt to inflation worldwide, but in particular in the United States.
3. Enrich Putler’s war machine. Continue reading
Do y’all recall when inflation was “transitory?” When the Secretary of the Treasury and the POTUS used to assure us that inflation was going to come and go? That the target would continue to be 2% – which, in fact, it had been?
Well it’s more than a year later and, clearly, that is not going to happen. In fact, we are in this inflationary spiral for the long term — meaning three years until there is any relief.
Let’s review the bidding to see how we got here, shall we?
This chart is not lying to you. Study it.
Yesterday, the Consumer Price Index report came out showing that the CPI increased by 8.5% (seasonally adjusted) year-over-year. This means that the CPI is 8.5% higher than it was in July 2021.
Wages were 5.5% higher, so you only lost 3% in buying power. Haha. Sorry.
[I personally find this incomprehensible as every commodity and food stuff I look at is wildly more expensive over the last year than 8.5% — eggs are up by 40% — but that’s just me.] Continue reading
Ten minutes ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Producer Price Index numbers for April 2022 – this is, of course, a month in arrears. The print was 11% meaning the cost of final demand goods from producers was up 11% when compared to April 2021.
These are Jimmy Carter numbers.
This is the fifth month in a row in which the annualized increase was double digits — again, when compared to a year earlier. Continue reading
Lousy jobs report coming out on Friday showing the United States lost more than 300,000 jobs in January 2022. Hello, America! Not good.
The White House is working overtime trying to come up with some explanation as to why the “fastest economic growth in nearly four decades” misses the mark by more than 500,000 jobs in a single month [expected 200,000+ new jobs and will show a loss of 300,000+ jobs resulting in a 500,000 + jobs miss, ouch!]. This is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge miss.
In a storm of record inflation the Biden jobs record — primarily a dead cat bounce by all indications — was the only actual bright spot on the big picture.
A dead cat bounce has nothing to do with Catwoman, who is very much alive and contemplating a remake of her iconic movie. It is a technical term of financial art meaning that even a cat dropped from a great height bounces upward when it hits rock bottom. [It is presumed the cat dies from the fall.]
But, that is not the story I want to tell you today. Continue reading
In the changing world in which we live, even the most Old School manufacturing companies are finding themselves having to change their ways to find, hire, and retain workers.
John Deere makes farm and construction equipment and its work force is unionized under the United Auto Workers.
Production lines at Deere are hard places to work and it takes a toll on a woman’s/man’s body.
The UAW has had a hard time convincing Deere management to increase wages and the UAW would admit that for the last 20-30 years they had their asses handed to them in every contract negotiation.
Meanwhile, the company has done well with a CEO making $16,000,000, a 160% increase when compared to 2019. This is 220X the average worker at Deere.
“My name is John May and I’m doing good. I’m the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the CEO of John Deere. Let’s play 36?”
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