Free Republic

Immigration won’t decide the election. Polls have not yet captured what will. This may come as a surprise, but the top issue housing. More explicitly, it’s shelter costs.The EconomyThe economy is a very broad category that encompasses inflation, jobs, unemployment, wages, rent, and housing.Other polls split the economy in various pieces, such as inflation and jobs. Not a single poll mentioned housing specifically.Q: What is it that young voters really have on their minds? A: RentThe CPI Rose Sharply in March Led by Shelter and GasolineThe CPI rose 0.4 percent in March. Rent was up another 0.4 percent with gasoline...

A series of weak auctions for U.S. Treasurys are stoking investors’ concerns that markets will struggle to absorb an incoming rush of government debt. ... inflation not tamed ... Federal Reserve will leave interest rates at multidecade highs for .. years to come. The 10-year yield—the benchmark for borrowing rates on everything from mortgages to corporate loans—finished the week around 4.5%... At the same time, the government is poised to sell another $386 billion or so of bonds in May—an onslaught that Wall Street expects to continue no matter who wins November’s presidential election. While few fear a failed auction—an...

KEY POINTS * The consumer price index, a key inflation gage, rose 3.5% in March, higher than expectations and marking an acceleration for inflation. * Shelter and energy costs drove the increase on the all-items index. Energy rose 1.1% after increasing 2.3% in February, while shelter costs were higher by 0.4% on the month and up 5.7% from a year ago. * Following the report, traders pushed the first expected rate cut out to September, according to CME Group calculations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The consumer price index accelerated at a faster than expected pace in March, pushing inflation higher and likely dashing...

The Consumer Price Index has increased 18.6% from 261.582 in January of 2021 when Biden took office to 310.326 in February 2024. Has your income gone up 18.6%, or did Biden make you POORER?

The prices consumers pay in the marketplace rose at an even slower pace than originally reported, according to closely watched revisions the government released Friday...[Other business news sources are reporting that the CPI was revised UP +0.1 in October and UP +0.1 in November - so - 4th Quarter 2023 CPI is UP +0.1 MORE than originally reported!]

Inflation is feelin’ hot, hot, hot! Although core inflation declined in December (CPI all items less food and energy), it is still hot, hot, hot at 4% Year-over-year (YoY). This raises the following question: Is The Fed tightening too much? Aka, yet another Fed policy error?? Since The Fed target rate is 5.50% and core inflation is now 4%? Headline Consumer Price Inflation printed hotter than expected in December, +0.3% MoM vs +0.2% exp and +0.1% prior, pushing the YoY headline CPI up to +3.4% (from +3.1% prior and hotter than the +3.2% exp)… Source: Bloomberg Services (Shelter mostly) costs...

President Biden reminds me of Cousin Eddie, the dimwitted cousin of Clark Griswold’s wife in the Vacation movies. Except that Cousin Eddie is a nice dimwit while Biden is a nasty dimwit. And politcal stooge. Given that turkey prices are up 321% under Biden, the famous Thanksgiving line “Save the neck for me, Clark” is most appropriate since we will be forced to eat every part of the turkey. Of course, year-over-year growh in turkey prices (CPI) are now negative along with M2 Money growth. Note the surge in M2 Money growth (green line) followed by the surge in turkey...

The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released new price inflation data Tuesday, and according to the report, price inflation during May decelerated, coming in at the lowest year-over-year increase in twenty-six months. According to the BLS, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 4.0 percent year over year in May before seasonal adjustment. That’s down from April’s year-over-year increase of 4.9 percent, and May is the twenty-seventh month in a row with inflation above the Fed’s arbitrary 2 percent inflation target. (More precisely, the Fed targets a two-percent rate in the PCE measure.) Meanwhile, month-over-month inflation rose 0.1 percent...

Inflation picked up in the first month of the year, defying optimism from investors and officials over a steady move lower seen in recent readings. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January showed a 0.5% increase in prices over the past month, an acceleration from the prior reading, government data showed Tuesday. On an annual basis, CPI rose 6.4%, continuing a steady march down from a 9.1% peak last June. Economists had expected prices to climb 6.2% over the year and jump 0.5% month-over-month, per consensus estimates from Bloomberg. New seasonal adjustments released by the BLS on Friday also switched...

Inflation turned higher to start 2023, as rising shelter, gas and fuel prices took their toll on consumers, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The consumer price index, which measures a broad basket of common goods and services, rose 0.5% in January, which translated to an annual gain of 6.4%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective increases of 0.4% and 6.2%.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.1 percent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.1 percent in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 6.5 percent before seasonal adjustment. The index for gasoline was by far the largest contributor to the monthly all items decrease, more than offsetting increases in shelter indexes. The food index increased 0.3 percent over the month with the food at home index rising 0.2 percent. The energy index decreased 4.5 percent over the month as the...

<p>But there was nothing minor about the rally that took hold in the seconds before the better-than-expected inflation number hit the Labor Department’s website.</p><p>Stock futures suddenly spiked more than 1%. Trading in Treasury futures surged, pushing benchmark yields lower by about 4 basis points. Those are major moves in such a short period of time — bigger than full-session swings on some days. And they should get scrutinized by regulators, long-time market observers say, even if a leak is only one of several possible explanations for why traders suddenly started buying right before the report was published.</p>

With persistent inflation eroding wage gains, the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck is near a historic high, according to a recent report. Almost half of those earning more than $100,000 say they are just getting by. As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget. As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report — near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%. "Consumers are not able to...

Stocks slumped Friday, capping off a volatile week of trading, a day after posting a historic turnaround rally as investors digested inflation expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 310 points, or 1.09%, but was still on track to end the week higher after Thursday’s gains. The S&P 500 shed 2.15%, on track to end the week down. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.84%, weighed down by losses in Tesla and Lucid Motors, which each declined more than 5%.

- A shock turnaround in equities sent Wall Street searching for something -- anything -- to explain how yet another red-hot inflation number translated into the best day for bulls in a week. Among the answers: increasingly sturdy positioning including well-provisioned hedges, a watershed moment for chart watchers, and several less-than-terrible earnings reports. Throw in some short covering, and the result was a trough-to-peak run-up in S&P 500 futures that approached 5% at its widest. Expect the unexpected has become the only mantra in a market when cross-currents are flowing from every direction, including a Federal Reserve bent on subduing...

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX - SEPTEMBER 2022 The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.4 percent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.1 percent in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 8.2 percent before seasonal adjustment. Increases in the shelter, food, and medical care indexes were the largest of many contributors to the monthly seasonally adjusted all items increase. These increases were partly offset by a 4.9-percent decline in the gasoline index. The food index continued to rise, increasing 0.8 percent over...

The White House on Tuesday invited folk musician James Taylor to help Democrats kick off a celebration of the “Inflation Reduction Act” on the South Lawn. The aging folk musician performed the song “Fire & Rain” to the flood of Democrats on the South Lawn to celebrate Biden’s multibillion-dollar green energy spending bill disguised as an “inflation reduction” law. “This is a time when the world needs to cooperate more than ever before, perhaps more than anything since the Second World War the world needs to get together and respond to the climate crisis,” Taylor said after finishing his song.“...

Stocks tumbled to their worst day in more than two years Tuesday, knocking the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1,250 points, following Wall Street’s humbling realization that inflation is not slowing as much as hoped. The S&P 500 sank 4.3%, its biggest drop since June 2020. The Dow fell 3.9% and the Nasdaq composite closed 5.2% lower. The sell-off ended a four-day winning streak for the major stock indexes and erased an early rally in European markets. Bond prices also fell sharply, sending their yields higher, after a report showed inflation decelerated only to 8.3% in August, instead...

Although the establishment media claimed that inflation fell in August, American households did not get any relief in the grocery store aisles. The price of food at home jumped 0.7 percent compared with the previous month. Over the past 12 months, grocery prices have gone up 13.5 percent. ome of the biggest increases in food include: Ham up 2.5 percent from July and 9.2 percent compared with a year ago. Frankfurters (hot dogs) up 5.3 percent from July and 18.3 percent compared with a year ago. Eggs up 2.9 percent from July and 39.8 percent compared with a year ago....

Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after a key August inflation report came in hotter than expected, hurting investor optimism for cooling prices and a less aggressive Federal Reserve.The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1,276.37 points, or 3.94%, to close at 31,104.97. The S&P 500 dropped 4.32% to 3,932.69, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 5.16% to end the day at 11,633.57.