from Good Morning America
Gold Steadies as Markets Await Inflation Data, Fed’s Next Move
by Gary Wagner
Kitco
Gold futures regained some stability on Tuesday, trading down just 0.23% after a sharp $60 decline in the previous session. The April 2024 contract touched an intraday low of $2,304.60 before recovering to $2,335.57 as of 5 PM EDT.
[…] Monday’s sell-off was fueled by easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran did not escalate further conflict between the two nations. With fears of further military action between Israel and Iran dissipating, gold’s safe-haven demand took a hit.
However, all eyes are now on the upcoming U.S. inflation report scheduled for this Friday. The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, could shape expectations for the central bank’s next policy move.
Biden Deep Underwater On Top Issues of Inflation, Immigration
by Nick Gilbertson
Breitbart.com
President Joe Biden’s approval rating is deep underwater on what Americans rated as their top two issues in an Economist/YouGov poll.
The poll, published on Wednesday, asked 1,651 U.S. adult respondents to pick the most important issue for them seven months away from the election. The top response was inflation or prices at 24 percent, while the second most popular choice was immigration at 14 percent.
[…] Moreover, 97 percent of all respondents tabbed inflation as “important,” with 77 percent saying it is “very important.” Similarly, 85 percent consider immigration an “important” issue, including 56 percent who see it as “very important.”
But Biden’s approval ratings on these fronts are more than 30-points underwater. Only 29 percent approve of his handling of inflation and prices, while 62 percent disapprove of his performance, including 49 percent who “strongly” disapprove.
Carney On ‘Kudlow’: We Need a National Inflation Day Protest This June
by Rebecca Mansour
Breitbart.com
The decades-long success of Earth Day protests in motivating political action on environmental issues has inspired Breitbart Economics Editor John Carney to call for a national Inflation Day protest this June to demand policy change on the most pressing issue for Americans.
Carney floated his idea during an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Monday, which also happened to be Earth Day. Despite President Biden’s policy focus on climate change, recent polling shows that Americans are far more concerned about inflation, Carney explained.
“Americans don’t care about climate change,” Carney told Kudlow. “It’s something that they’re being told will happen 50 to 100 years from now by any realistic measure. But inflation is the issue they’re facing right now. The border crisis is the issue they’re facing right now.”
Biden’s Old ‘0% Inflation’ Comment Comes Back to Bite as McKinsey Says New Biggest Splurge for U.S. Consumers is Groceries
by Caleb Naysmith
Yahoo! Finance
It’s an issue President Joe Biden has to grapple with as his reelection campaign gears up, especially given that 65% of Americans remember the economy as good under former President Donald Trump, according to the poll.
In August 2022, Biden announced “zero inflation” at a time when the consumer price index (CPI) reported it was 8.5%. While he was referring to 0% month-over-month inflation at the time, it rubbed many the wrong way given the negative perception of the economy, with one Republican senator calling the claim “gaslighting.”
The Changing Dynamics of Global Inflation
During the post-COVID-19 period, a surge in global inflation led to unprecedented fluctuations, with savings-oriented behaviors less prevalent than in previous decades
by Kerem Alkin
Daily Sabah
After the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided and global demand began to rebound, global supply chain issues, influenced by the ongoing aftershocks of the pandemic, sparked a rapid acceleration in global inflation, which had remained largely subdued for decades. Supply disruptions, exacerbated by prolonged quarantine and restriction measures in China and Asia to combat the coronavirus pandemic, further fueled global inflation, compounded by the surge in demand resulting from accumulated savings during the initial 18 months of the pandemic. This dynamic, coupled with shifts in intergenerational savings and spending behaviors, has elevated the range of fluctuations in global inflation to unprecedented levels.
Over the past decade, maintaining price stability has become increasingly challenging, particularly in developing economies, as shifts in living standards and restructuring of saving-consumption habits have occurred.
Politics in the Fight Against Inflation
by Ira Kawaller
FX Street
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One of the disturbing features about economics as a field of study is that it really doesn’t have a particularly good handle on inflation and how to cure it. Our best remedy is a blunt effort to try to slow economic growth to broadly limit inflationary pressures, thereby threatening to substitute higher unemployment and slower job creation for lower inflation.
Many economists see inflation as a monetary phenomenon caused by too much money chasing too few goods. Those with this perspective see tight money as the cure-all – i.e., retarding the growth of the money supply and forcing interest rates higher.
Inflation Pressures Shift Back to Manufacturing as Factory Costs Surge
by John Carney
Breitbart.com
Inflationary pressures are mounting in the manufacturing sector even as the growth of the U.S. economy slowed in April after a brisk first quarter, a pair of key business surveys indicated Tuesday.
The “flash” purchasing managers surveys from S&P Global showed that input prices continued to rise sharply in April, although the pace of inflation eased from the ten-month high hit in March. Manufacturers saw the fastest rise in input costs in a year thanks to rising prices of raw materials.
Services providers reported the slowest rise in overall costs in three years, according to S&P Global, although shipping and staffing costs continued to increase.
U.S. Business Activity Cools in April; Inflation Measures Mixed
by Reuters
Yahoo! Finance
S&P Global said on Tuesday that its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, fell to 50.9 this month from 52.1 in March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the private sector.
The slowdown reflected weaker rates of growth in both the manufacturing and services sectors, with activity easing to three- and five-month lows, respectively.
Billionaire Investor Ray Dalio Says He’s Owning Gold to Hedge the Risk of Debt and Inflation Crises
Ray Dalio says he owns gold partly to hedge against debt and inflation risks.
by Jennifer Sor
Business Insider
Ray Dalio is holding onto gold as a buffer against risks stemming from higher inflation and a potential debt crisis hitting the economy.
The billionaire investor and former Bridgewater Associates CEO has pointed to mounting debt balances around the world, with the US debt notching $34 trillion for the first time ever this year. Debt problems have also plagued China, Japan, and European nations — which poses a big risk for the currencies in those nations, he wrote in a post on LinkedIn this week.
“History and logic show that when there are big risks that the debts will either 1) not be paid back or 2) be paid back with money of depreciated value, the debt and the money become unattractive,” Dalio wrote on Thursday.
What Did the Last Four Years Teach Us about Managing Inflation?
Central banks around the world have faced years of extraordinary circumstances, including the COVID-related crash of the global economy, a spike in interest rates, and an ensuing runup in interest rates. William English, Eugene F. Williams, Jr. Professor of the Practice and a former economist at the Federal Reserve, discusses the lessons learned and what still stands in the way of a soft landing.
by William B. English
Yale Insights
Q: There’s tremendous attention on inflation these days. But the Federal Reserve and other central banks have been dealing with extraordinary circumstances for more than four years. Would you walk us through the challenges, the responses, and what we have learned, starting with the shutdown from the COVID pandemic?
While “unprecedented” is a term that can be overused, when the pandemic hit in 2020, it was an unprecedented shock. It had been 100 years since we’d had a global pandemic. And, of course, we now have a much bigger, much more complicated, much more integrated global economy, which was abruptly shut down.
It was very hard for policymakers to understand what was happening and to judge what was the right thing to do. Central banks did basically everything in their power to help get their economies going again. They have three monetary policy levers: interest rates, balance sheets, and guidance. They used them all to respond powerfully and quickly.