from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network

Kerry and Ted Thatcher discussed the recent PPI and CPI numbers and their significance in relation to inflation and potential rate cuts. They explored Jerome Powell’s perspective and the political incentives for rate reductions, emphasizing the influence of financial markets on Fed decisions. The discussion also touched on the growing disparity between Wall Street and Main Street, expressing apprehension about the impact on average Americans. Additionally, they explored the evolving nature of CPI measurement and its implications for understanding inflation, and the potential effects of political influences on economic policies. The conversation concluded with a reflection on the need for vigilance and caution in financial decision-making, given the complex interplay of economic, political, and market forces.

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The president has tried to shift blame for inflation, interest rate hikes, and an overall decimation of consumers’ purchasing power.

by Veronique de Rugy
Reason.com

Government overspending, an activity the Biden administration has taken to a new level, has sent the country into an inflationary spiral. Through trillions of dollars in COVID-19 relief programs, infrastructure spending, vote-buying student loan forgiveness programs, and a political “Build Back Better Agenda,” the White House has flooded the economy and decimated consumers’ purchasing power. We’re paying more and getting less for everything from energy to food.

According to the House Budget Committee, the average family of four is paying around $1,143 more each month than it was in early 2021 for the same goods and services; this includes increased gasoline costs. Rather than reversing course, President Joe Biden is telling voters the private sector is to blame and that he has the answers. He’s doubling down by proposing more stifling, job-killing regulations to “fix” the problem—regulations which will inevitably send inflation to new heights.

Continue Reading at Reason.com…

from Peter Schiff

by Ann Saphir
The Globe and Mail

Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari said Sunday it’s a “reasonable prediction” that the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates once this year, waiting until December to do it.

“We need to see more evidence to convince us that inflation is well on our way back down to 2 per cent,” Mr. Kashkari said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.

The Fed last week held its benchmark policy rate in the 5.25-per-cent to 5.50-per-cent range, where it has been since last July, to keep continued pressure on the economy so as to cool inflation. It also published projections that showed the median forecast from all 19 U.S. central bankers was for a single interest-rate cut this year.

Continue Reading at TheGlobeAndMail.com…

from talkdigitalnetwork

by Lisa Kailai Han and Katrina Bishop
CNBC.com

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield fell again on Friday as data released this week pointed to easing inflation.

The 10-year Treasury yield was trading around 4.209%, down about 3 basis points. The 2-year Treasury note yield was marginally higher at 4.694%.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.

The moves come after the producer price index, a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, slipped 0.2% in May, lower than economists’ expectations of a 0.1% uptick and a 0.5% rise in April. The data was released Thursday.

Continue Reading at CNBC.com…

from Blockworks Macro

by John Carney
Breitbart.com

High inflation brought down consumer sentiment to the lowest level in seven months in early June, the University of Michigan’s survey of U.S. households showed Friday.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 65.6 in the preliminary June reading, down from 69.1 in May. Economists had expected the index to rise to 72.

The decline was driven by a worse assessment of current conditions and a smaller dip in the expectations gauge.

“Assessments of personal finances dipped, due to modestly rising concerns over high prices as well as weakening incomes,” the survey’s director, Joanne Hsu, said. “Overall, consumers perceive few changes in the economy from May.”

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

from Face the Nation

Australia’s central bank will likely hold its key interest rate at a 12-year high on Tuesday as it tries to restrain consumer prices that have been underpinned by an ultra-tight employment market.

by Swati Pandey
Financial Post

(Bloomberg) — Australia’s central bank will likely hold its key interest rate at a 12-year high on Tuesday as it tries to restrain consumer prices that have been underpinned by an ultra-tight employment market.

The Reserve Bank will keep the cash rate at 4.35% for a fifth straight meeting, economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted. The decision will be released at 2:30 p.m. in Sydney, followed an hour later by Governor Michele Bullock’s press conference.

Australia’s policy meeting follows a highly-anticipated decision by the Federal Reserve last week, when Chair Jerome Powell signaled he wasn’t in a rush to ease monetary policy even after a soft inflation report. Bullock is likely to draw on the same playbook by retaining her mild hawkish bias in acknowledgment of sticky consumer prices.

Continue Reading at FinancialPost.com…

from Soar Financially

by Peter Schiff
Schiff Sovereign

“Americans are feeling uneasy for reasons that are hard to pin down,” quipped economist Paul Krugman in a New York Times interview published earlier this week.

Reasons that are hard to pin down? Bear in mind that this man received a Nobel Prize– our society’s most prominent award for intellectual achievement. Yet he doesn’t have the foggiest idea why his fellow citizens may be feeling uneasy.

Perhaps it’s the ever-lurking prospect of escalated warfare. Or the exasperation over dysfunctional government, weaponization of the justice system, and manipulative media. Or the invasion of millions of migrants streaming across the southern border, virtually unchecked.

Granted those issues may be outside of Krugman’s wheelhouse. But you’d think that he would at least understand people’s unease over inflation.

Continue Reading at SchiffSovereign.com…

from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network

by Mike Maharrey
GoldSeek

Strike up the band and wave the victory banners! Inflation is dead!

Or is it?

The May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was cause for optimism. But price inflation is like that stubborn weed in the driveway. Just when you think you’ve killed it for good, it pokes back through a crack.

Keep in mind that this time last year, we were also talking about a victory over inflation.

In July 2023, an analyst told CNBC, “There has been significant progress made on the inflation front, and today’s report confirmed that while most of the country is dealing with hotter temperatures outside, inflation is finally cooling,”

It wasn’t quite what it seemed.

Continue Reading at GoldSeek.com…

from Rebel Capitalist

by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money

Monetary authorities and domestic users do not understand the true relationship between their fiat currency, the threats to its purchasing power, and the relationship with gold.

It’s now increasingly assumed that the US economy is not performing as well as the statistics suggest, and that the Fed must cut interest rates and keep on cutting. The assumption is based on a mixture of Keynesian hope and market experience of the last three or four decades, which cover the work-experience of today’s investment managers. Last week I quoted from an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph of 5 June, who wrote that “Citigroup says that the Fed will have to cut interest rates in July and at every meeting until mid-2025”. Therefore, a research report from one of the largest banks in the US is evidence of this view.

It must be admitted that in the short term, such a strong consensus over interest rates can become self-fulfilling.

Continue Reading at GoldMoney.com…

from Peak Prosperity

by Reuters
Kitco

June 12 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose broadly on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touching fresh record highs after softer inflation data lifted hopes for central bank rate cuts, while Apple overtook Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company.

As the focus shifts to the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement, markets will zero in on Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference and the Fed’s updated “dot plot”, which shows where policymakers expect interest rates to stand this year and long term.

Interest rates are overwhelmingly expected to remain unchanged at the meeting.

Continue Reading at Kitco.com…

from GoldSwitzerland by VON GREYERZ

The president has tried to shift blame for inflation, interest rate hikes, and an overall decimation of consumers’ purchasing power.

by Veronique de Rugy
Reason.com

Government overspending, an activity the Biden administration has taken to a new level, has sent the country into an inflationary spiral. Through trillions of dollars in COVID-19 relief programs, infrastructure spending, vote-buying student loan forgiveness programs, and a political “Build Back Better Agenda,” the White House has flooded the economy and decimated consumers’ purchasing power. We’re paying more and getting less for everything from energy to food.

According to the House Budget Committee, the average family of four is paying around $1,143 more each month than it was in early 2021 for the same goods and services; this includes increased gasoline costs. Rather than reversing course, President Joe Biden is telling voters the private sector is to blame and that he has the answers. He’s doubling down by proposing more stifling, job-killing regulations to “fix” the problem—regulations which will inevitably send inflation to new heights.

Continue Reading at Reason.com…