• 657 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 658 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 659 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 1,059 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 1,064 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 1,066 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 1,069 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 1,069 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 1,070 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 1,072 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 1,072 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 1,076 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 1,076 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 1,077 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 1,079 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 1,080 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 1,083 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 1,084 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 1,084 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 1,086 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

Atlanta Fed Sees Far Weaker Than Expected Q1 GDP

Another Monday, another set of "surprisingly" bad economic numbers. A few representative headlines:

China manufacturing prices decline for 18th straight month
Oil prices fall 5% on bad China data, OPEC uncertainty
Global factories parched for demand, need stimulus
Junk bonds suffer a rare negative return in January
US consumer spending softens, savings hit 3-year high
US manufacturing weak again in January
China official PMI misses in January, Caixin PMI shows contraction
Japanese bond yields continue to collapse

There's more, but you get the (very dark) picture. And thanks to the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow program we can see in real time how these numbers translate into current-quarter GDP growth. Apparently the US is looking at yet another weak stretch in which economists (represented by the Blue Chip consensus) are gradually forced to admit that they've wildly overestimated our ability to manage our debt.

GDPNow

GDP growth matters for a couple of reasons. First, an economy that's borrowing a lot of money (as all the major ones are) has to generate large amounts of new wealth or it sinks ever-deeper into a hole that eventually leads to a 1930s-style depression. 1.3% growth does not come close to stopping the expansion of debt/GDP. So every quarter like the current one brings a debt-driven collapse that much closer.

Second and far more interesting in the near-term, slow-growth/high-debt countries eventually conclude that their only remaining option is massive currency devaluation. Europe and Japan are already there, and are aggressively ramping up their own currency war offensives. The US, if history is any guide, will soon (either this year or as part of the next administration's "first 100 days" political offensive) decide that a too-strong dollar is standing in the way of "progress" and will start looking for ways to devalue.

Then the real fun begins -- at least for goldbugs. For holders of dollars it won't be nearly as pleasant. Here's the Canadian version of what's coming for US investors, though the US chart will be steeper and will go on for years instead of months:

90-Day Gold Price in Canadian Dollars

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment