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Inflation As A Deeper Concept

By |2014-05-30T15:29:02-04:00May 30th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The problem with talking about inflation, and there is a lot of it recently, is conflation. Modern measures and concepts about pricing mash together every kind and form to create something that doesn’t really mean what was intended. On the “up” side we have monetary debasement coupling with orthodox concepts of “pricing power” and thrown together with supply shortages and [...]

Economists v. Bonds

By |2014-05-30T09:47:05-04:00May 30th, 2014|Bonds, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Stocks|

By now the bond market is really starting to annoy all the “right” people. The bear flattening that has taken place since operational taper commenced is a direct contradiction to those that implore dismissal of recent GDP (after pleading quite the opposite during the inventory build last year). Mainstream, orthodox economists have settled that Q1 is an aberration, a speed [...]

Durable Goods Patterns

By |2014-04-24T10:57:53-04:00April 24th, 2014|Economy, Markets|

All economics and finance can be dissolved and distilled into analysis of patterns. Whether that takes the form of a hardened, quantitative approach or something more toward the “eye of the beholder” depends on many factors. I find it useful to blend the two to find compliments and, perhaps more importantly, divergences. Oftentimes the real trick is discerning when one [...]

Confused Stasis

By |2014-03-26T11:47:42-04:00March 26th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

There was not much new to report in today’s durable goods estimates, consisting of largely the same we have seen since mid-2012. But that in and of itself is noteworthy, particularly as other indications point to similar patterns and analysis. In the past this has been called “scraping along the bottom”, but if recent history is any guide then it [...]

Lowest Trade Since 2009

By |2014-03-13T11:05:21-04:00March 13th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

This post will include an excess of charts and graphs, ostensibly to put to rest any weather notions as well as highlight the macro component of what is clearly economic dysfunction. The beginning of 2013 was bad in its own right, but the excuses laid then pertained to QE’s lag (as well as winter grumbling). Since QE3 wasn’t inaugurated until [...]

Peering Beyond Conventions of Inventory and Inflation

By |2014-03-04T17:52:33-05:00March 4th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The preliminary revisions to Q4 2013 GDP subtracted a significant portion off what was previously believed much more robust, thus making Q3 more and more of an outlier. We knew that 2013 (and even late 2012) had a very heavy inventory component, far more than is “typical”, and that observation survived these adjustments despite a similar downward revision in Q4 [...]

No Joy In Snowville

By |2014-02-13T11:44:45-05:00February 13th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The only real noteworthy aspect of this morning’s retail sales report was the dramatic downward revisions to December. I’m not sure if the temperature readings have been similarly revised, given that it is now fashionable to correlate the two, but in either case the adjustment shaved off 85 bps of Y/Y growth for sales ex autos (auto sales were revised [...]

Stall Speed Revisit

By |2013-10-16T15:44:42-04:00October 16th, 2013|Markets|

If the government shutdown ends in the near future, there will be a data dump unlike anything we have seen before. The September jobs report at the end of October the same time as retail sales and US imports/exports, etc. The backup in data crunching to fit survey results into seasonally adjusted output may delay the timing of the more [...]

Using Less Is Not Growth

By |2013-08-06T16:11:05-04:00August 6th, 2013|Markets|

Because of the way GDP is calculated currently, the latest release on the US trade deficit is going to boost GDP slightly for Q2 (and just as likely will get canceled by a downward revision somewhere else). The logic and methodology is sound, but that does not mean it is a perfect measure. The fact that imports declined so much [...]

Again, Coming In Below 2008

By |2013-07-25T14:04:13-04:00July 25th, 2013|Markets|

Same story, different month. Durable goods are still running well-below 2008 comparisons, continung the run of bad numbers and trends. Headline durable goods were great due to a huge increase at Boeing, but the results outside of that were pretty much standard for 2013. While new orders continued a slight uptick in both durable goods ex-transportation and nondefense capital goods [...]

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