The Fed concluded its January meeting, and as expected, took no action. Most Fed Governors voted to maintain the current fed funds rate with two dissents favoring a small 25bp (.25%) cut. The market shrugged and finished flat(ish) to up small depending on your favored index. This was a reasonable reaction. Many are still … Read more
The CPI stays locked in a tight range thanks to the BLS presenting a constantly-understated version. High inflation continues regardless of the official statistics or the actions of the Fed. Chairman Powell announced that he’s being investigated causing political actors to bemoan the politization of the Fed. The Fed has always been a political institution … Read more
The December CPI was announced yesterday. Normally, I do an immediate detailed analysis. That made sense when wildly fluctuating inflation metrics had a real impact on what the Fed was going to do. I see the data as less valuable and timely right now. The December CPI was 2.7% with the Core CPI at 2.6%. … Read more
Silver pricing rockets as warehouses can’t supply everyone with obligations to deliver rare metal rather than unlimited fiat. The CME tries to help, but can’t change the long-term supply/demand equation here. China limits exports of silver as they continue to build stockpiles. US tech firms respond by publicly saying they’re looking at buying silver mines. … Read more
Overview: There’s been a lot in the news and on Fin-X lately about Japan, record gold prices, and skyrocketing silver. Here’s a quick summary of the situation(s). Japan: I was going to write a long explanation, and then realized I’ve covered this in detail in the past. The short version is Japan ran up … Read more
We got an estimated CPI that shows inflation has slowed. The market loved seeing that, but I still think inflation is too high. Plus, do any of you think the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated a low CPI? Me either. Oil prices continue to fall. Efforts to embargo Russian oil have failed. DKI predicted this … Read more
Overview: Today, we got the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 2.7% for the last year. There was no October report due to the government shutdown so there will be no monthly comparisons in this piece. The annual number is down 0.3% from the September report and 0.4% below … Read more
