labor market

The Fed’s True Love: He Tapers Me, He Tapers Me Not

By |2021-08-27T15:41:36-04:00August 27th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

They were doing so well, or at least not quite as bad as throughout the prior several decades. Through this year’s 5% CPI’s, Federal Reserve policymakers stuck to their gut not their heart. Transitory factors. Right call (as we’ll see in a minute). That won’t be their mistake. On the contrary, these Economists (central bankers are all Economists nowadays, and [...]

An Eye On GDI May Tell Us Why

By |2021-08-26T19:46:12-04:00August 26th, 2021|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The second estimate for second quarter 2021 GDP didn’t change much, or anything. However, coincident with this “expenditure side” data release the BEA also completed its full preliminary assessments of the “income side.” GDI, in other words.What’s interesting on this other side of the output ledger is something called Net Operating Surplus (NOS). And it is NOS which frustratingly takes [...]

Inflation Review: How The ‘Best Jobs Market In Decades’ Couldn’t Deliver

By |2021-08-10T17:49:21-04:00August 10th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Money printing. Overheating. Going from an economy stuck in the mud to one rocketing ahead seemingly in the blink of an eye. Careless government officials steadfastly forecasting Goldilocks, surely whistling past the consumer price graveyard of stagflation misery.Long believed dead, that seventies Inflation Monster relit maybe by necessity but now on the loose lurking just beneath the surface, ready to [...]

One For Waller’s Taper Table

By |2021-08-06T18:08:13-04:00August 6th, 2021|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Score one big one for Governor Waller’s taper checklist. This particular FOMC member had, just a few days ago, speculated on continued large gains in US payrolls. A couple more on top of the last one, that being June, and it was his position the Federal Reserve would have to begin to seriously consider shifting course. He doesn’t mean to [...]

ISM’s and ADP’s, So Many Letters Too Few Specific Numbers

By |2021-08-04T17:21:58-04:00August 4th, 2021|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

One good, one bad and by the end more the latter since the former simply bucked the trend, almost alone as an outlier (among outliers). The day started out with European deflationary pressures putting a spike on UST and related sovereign bond prices then quickly substantiated when ADP reported (830am EDT) its estimates for private payrolls during July (this was [...]

Go Early, Go Fast? Go Deflation

By |2021-08-03T18:16:01-04:00August 3rd, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Go early and go fast. This was the message FOMC Governor Christopher Waller wanted to send to the CNBC audience watching his interview yesterday on that channel. He was referring to the possible taper of QE6. In Waller’s view, if the US economy lives up to its current hype in the form of two more blowout jobs numbers, those would [...]

Do Rising ‘Global’ Growth Concerns Include An Already *Slowing* US Economy?

By |2021-07-22T19:39:00-04:00July 22nd, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Global factors, meaning that the wave of significantly higher deflationary potential (therefore, diminishing inflationary chances which were never good to begin with) in global bond yields the past five months have seemingly focused on troubles brewing outside the US. Overseas turmoil, it was called back in 2015, leaving by default a picture of relative American strength and harmony.The rest of [...]

No Inflation In These Payrolls

By |2021-07-02T17:18:26-04:00July 2nd, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Payrolls for the month of June were a mixed bag, in that the payroll data was better than expected at the same time nothing else was. After a couple months of ho-hum gains for the Establishment Survey, government hiring (mostly) boosted the latest monthly figure to +853,000. This brings the 6-month average up to +543,000, which is either really good [...]

Weekly Market Pulse: Who’s The Boss?

By |2021-06-14T08:26:10-04:00June 13th, 2021|Alhambra Portfolios, Alhambra Research, Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Real Estate, Stocks, Taxes/Fiscal Policy|

I told you last week that there were strange things going on in the labor market but I had no idea how much of an understatement that really was. Much of last week's economic focus was on the inflation report but I think the JOLTS report may turn out to be more significant. Inflation was indeed pretty hot year over [...]

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