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

Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles here. Investors with interests in this area be sure to stop by Enduring Investments. Plus...buy my book about money and inflation, just published! The title of the book is What's Wrong with Money? The Biggest Bubble of All; order from Amazon here.

  • CPI coming up in 15 mins. Consensus is +0.3% headline +0.2% core, putting y/y core up to 2.2% again.
  • Base effects for core suggest better chance for y/y rise for next 4mo or so.
  • Stay tuned, 10mins to CPI. In the meantime why not check out our Crowdfunding campaign? https://www.crowdfunder.com/enduring-investments-llc ... (Accredited inv only)
  • Core CPI +0.203% m/m; y/y rises to 2.235%.
  • Core goods remains at -0.5% y/y; core services rises to 3.2%, highest since 2008.
  • Housing jumped to 2.37% y/y from 2.11%. Looking at breakdown to see if that's in rents or elsewhere in housing.
  • Medical Care had fallen from 3.29% y/y to 2.98% last month. Back up to 3.17%, which is the general trend: higher.
  • Apparel flipped to +0.58% y/y vs -0.57% y/y. Only about 5% of core CPI, but a bellwether we've been watching (with little result so far).
  • tweeted this earlier...note that strong base effects lifted y/y CPI but next 3 months comparison also easy.

M/M Core CPI, Last 12-Months

  • Within Housing, Primary rents rise to 3.80% from 3.73%. OER jumps HUGE, to 3.264% from 3.147%. Big jump for a big part of basket.
  • ...and that's not a misprint. All pressures on rents are higher, and remain higher.
  • Lodging away from home is small, but was a drag last mo. Not this mo: rises to 3.83% y/y from 1.32%
  • In Medical Care, drugs actually fell to 2.34% y/y from 2.84%. But professional svcs 2.81% from 2.26%; Hospital svcs 3.25% v 3.15%
  • Health insurance 6.30% y/y from 5.80%.
  • y/y change in Health Insurance CPI

US CPI Urban Consumer Medical Health

  • y/y in med care services - resuming uptrend

US CPI Urban Consumer Medical Care

  • optimists can look at core ex-housing and see a rise to only 1.42%. But that's b/c goods carry much more weight in that look.
  • W/in transportation, new and used vehicles was actually a drag, -0.50% y/y from -0.27%. That's in core goods.
  • y/y core hasn't been above 3% for 20 years. But will be in 2017.
  • y/y core hasn't been above 3% for 20 years. But will be in 2017.
  • Early estimate of Median CPI...+0.26% m/m with y/y going to 2.53%, a new cycle high.
  • Probably a good time to mention the crowdfunding for Enduring Investments again: https://www.crowdfunder.com/enduring-investments-llc... Own an inflation manager!
  • Bottom line for today: nothing at all soothing in this report. Upward inflation trend continues.

Nothing at all soothing, indeed. A day after the FOMC chose to stand pat on interest rates, core inflation pushed back higher and median inflation is about to push above 2.5% for the first time since 2009 (when it was on the way down). Of course, nothing about this inflation picture, and the rotten internals that suggest higher figures are in store, would have changed the Fed's decision yesterday. As noted previously in this space, the Yellen Fed fundamentally does not believe that inflation is a threat; if it is a threat, they believe a little inflation is okay if allowing inflation to run hot helps the overall economy and the little guy; and if they later decide inflation does need to be addressed, it can be easily reined in.

They are wrong on all three counts, and we may well be seeing the beginnings of a colossal error. Honestly, the question here is between whether it is only a bad error that is fixable or a colossal error that isn't fixable without much pain. Inflation is headed higher.

And yet, ironically, standing pat on interest rates will slow down the near-term rise in inflation since it will keep money velocity from rising as rapidly as it would if interest rates were rising. The best way to keep cash inert is for alternative investment opportunities to remain poor! But money growth around 7% is too fast, even if velocity merely flatlines. Inflation will continue to rise for the balance of this year and into 2017 (at least).

 


(Interested in what we do? Take a look at Enduring Investments' Crowdfunder campaign, which is open to accredited investors who are willing to be verified as accredited by a third party verification agent.)

P.S. Don't forget to buy my book! What's Wrong with Money: The Biggest Bubble of All. Thanks!

You can follow me @inflation_guy!

Enduring Investments is a registered investment adviser that specializes in solving inflation-related problems. Fill out the contact form at http://www.EnduringInvestments.com/contact and we will send you our latest Quarterly Inflation Outlook. And if you make sure to put your physical mailing address in the "comment" section of the contact form, we will also send you a copy of Michael Ashton's book "Maestro, My Ass!"

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment