inflation

Gold: Big Difference Which Kind of Hedge It Truly Is

By |2019-08-30T16:33:17-04:00August 30th, 2019|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It isn’t inflation which is driving gold higher, at least not the current levels of inflation. According to the latest update from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation calculation, the PCE Deflator, continues to significantly undershoot. Monetary policy explicitly calls for that rate to be consistent around 2%, an outcome policymakers keep saying they expect but [...]

The Corroboration and Costs of Fear Gold

By |2019-08-27T17:02:18-04:00August 27th, 2019|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Gold is the ultimate hedge, but it is far from perfect. Unlike, say, sovereign bonds there should be no expectation for a negatively correlated price. You can buy a UST or German bund even at negative yields and at least expect the price to rise when things are at their worst. Flight to safety or flight to liquidity. You can’t [...]

The Path Clear For More Rate Cuts, If You Like That Sort of Thing

By |2019-08-13T16:17:28-04:00August 13th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

If you like rate cuts and think they are powerful tools to help manage a soft patch, then there was good news in two international oil reports over the last week. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) cut its forecast for global demand growth for the seventh straight month. On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) downgraded its estimates for [...]

Powell Readies His Noose

By |2019-07-30T18:41:02-04:00July 30th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The problem continues to be, I’m sure, is one of perception. Economists, politicians, and mostly central bankers have been saying for years that the real economy is the one you see in the unemployment rate. Things are booming. The labor market is awesome, even epically tight. Between last year and this year, going by the unemployment rate the economy has [...]

Rate Cuts Will Not Be The Fed’s First Insurance Policy

By |2019-07-30T17:11:27-04:00July 30th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

I don’t think anyone really noticed the timing because nobody really noticed it had happened. What took place last year qualifies as a big deal in the world of central banking and moneyless monetary policy. The lack of clarity about it as well as what sure looks like indecision portrays an intellectual foundation at odds with public perception. First, the [...]

Much More Than Rate Cuts On (Dis)Inflation

By |2019-07-11T17:05:40-04:00July 11th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Things have changed, obviously. Chairman Powell and the rest of the FOMC, the majority anyway, have come around to rate cuts. Where they were hawkish in December, noncommittal as late as May, they’ve been spooked into them over the last month or so. As it stands, the first one is less than three weeks away. It’s not so much the [...]

Post-Landmine Payrolls

By |2019-07-05T12:32:29-04:00July 5th, 2019|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It’s never about a single payroll report. Even still, there’s something significant in how the “good” ones aren’t measuring up the way they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US economy gained 224k payrolls in the month of June 2019. Well above consensus, the headline is being described as relieving some of the growing economic [...]

Inflation Undershoots, Inflation Expectations Sketch Out Growing Downside

By |2019-06-28T17:04:07-04:00June 28th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

For the third time in the last five months, inflation expectations have matched record lows. To hear officials and Economists talk, you’d think they were at or nearing record highs. The unemployment rate, after all, is at a 50-year low point which by mainstream reckoning should mean the cusp of an epic wage-driven breakout. According to the University of Michigan’s [...]

Europeans First to Reverse: Draghi Warned Draghi Seventeen Months Ago

By |2019-06-18T12:07:17-04:00June 18th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It wasn’t the basis for rational analysis, it was a very public admission of bias and error. We don’t know why inflation ultimately will do what we believe it will, they said, we just believe that it will so you should, too. It sounds ludicrous, but it is actually very much in keeping with standard Economics. The puppet show. What [...]

Curve Sanity (Not What Most People Want To Hear or See)

By |2019-06-13T18:47:44-04:00June 13th, 2019|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Rate cuts will be insurance against whatever “trade wars” will throw at the global economy. That’s the current line from monetary officials in the US, anyway. The real question to ask is, how would they know? Starting with trade wars. Is that really what’s behind all this? The evolution of the curves told you everything you need to know, and [...]

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