While July’s retail sales numbers (which include almost exclusively purchases of goods) were not stellar, some perspective please. First, the Delta variant necessarily had some impact, and may well have more in August. Second, the fact that online spending and…
The Friday File: At the 100th Saratoga Sale earlier this month, 135 yearlings sold for $55,155,000. The average price, $408,556, just shy of the 2019 record of $411,459. The median price was $350,000, equaling the record set in 2019. The…
While the current inflationary surge is largely economy reopening related and thus temporary, there’s a caveat. Strong job growth, improving household formation, higher wages, and house prices that are booming, may stimulate rent inflation. After averaging 3.5%/year in the years…
With an increase in the debt ceiling still awaiting congressional attention, the bond market is pricing in default risk. 1-month T-Bills are yielding 0.0203% while 3-month T-Bills are 0.0583%, over twice as high, a yawning gap given that they are…
Gimpy Gold On 8/15/71 President Nixon ended convertibility of the US dollar into gold. Since, gold has appreciated from $35/oz to $1,800/oz, an 8.2% annualized rate of return. Had you instead invested in the S&P 500 and reinvested dividends, your…
Reliable Rates With tapering of the Fed’s monthly purchases of $80 billion in Treasuries and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities fast approaching, will this raise interest rates? Unlikely, and the primary reason is the federal budget deficit, which was $3.1…
The Friday File: The longest English word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It is a noun that refers to a lung disease resulting from inhaling very fine silica or quartz dust. Most importantly, it is 45 letters long. In second at 36 letters,…
Y-o-Y July CPI came in at 5.4%, the same as last month, it’s first non-rise since 11/20. Adding to the good news, M-o-Month price increases fell from 0.9% in June to 0.5% in July. Better yet, core CPI be it…
While there’s talk of substantial wage growth, some perspective please. Since monthly inflation, as measured by the CPI, began visibly rising in 2/21, it’s rise has exceeded the monthly rise in average hourly earnings every month! This means real wages…
The bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill that recently passed in the Senate will boost GDP just marginally because it includes only $550 billion in new spending to be disbursed over five to eight years, much of which will be paid…