Food (Bloggers & Personal)
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Biden, talking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, made light of America’s struggles with Bidenflation (higher home prices, higher mortgage rates, higher energy and food costs, higher …) caliously saying that “they can afford it.” Well Joe, your big donors (the top 0.5% can afford it! But not the middle class that you have abandoned. In fact, much of America has drained their savings and run up massive debt to cope with your terrible economic policies. The amount of credit card debt across the US has hit a new record high of $1.337 trillion (even though it appears to have finally hit...
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Biden and Bidenomics is disastrous for the middle class and low wage workers. Food and housing prices through the roof, and now we have mortgage purchase demand declining -57% under Biden. Mortgage applications increased 2.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 3, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted...
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Lightning strikes TWICE! One year after regional banks crashed and burned due to the combination of tumbling debt/treasury prices coupled with cratering commercial real estate loans, fears about the current state of Commercial Real Estate – where most offices still see tenants at best 3 to 4 days a week and are literally burning through rents – appear long forgotten. Is that sensible? For one answer, we turned to the latest report from Goldman’s REIT/CRE expert Chandhi Luthra who has published a visual assessment of the state of CRE in 2024 in terms of loan maturities, 2023 extensions, and property...
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It's high time we addressed a growing concern in the restaurant industry: portion sizes and the rise of "Fat-flation." Somewhere along the line in American culinary history, the amount of food served in restaurants became a point of pride for many of us. We'd either polish off every last morsel on our plates, take home leftovers, or sadly, let them languish in the fridge for days before tossing them out. What a waste. After four decades of Americans packing on the pounds, and all the health issues that come with it, it's clear we need a change. Both restaurants and...
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Perhaps Fed Chair Jerome Powell was listening to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy!” Because The Fed went crazy with money printing to counteract the shutdown of the US economy in 2020. The US jobs market peaked in February 2020 under Trump at 152,309,000. Then COVID struck in March 2020 and the US economy lost almost 10 million jobs by December 2020. But when the fear ebbed and the economy opened back up, it took until June 2022 to recover the lost jobs. But since June 2022, the US economy has added almost 6 million jobs (many are part-time jobs and taken...
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As a seasoned restaurant consultant deeply entrenched in the industry, I've got my finger on the pulse of what's happening. Running a restaurant has always been a tough gig. Everyone seems to think their family recipe will turn into a gold mine, but sadly, it's not just about the quality of Grandma's lasagna. There are myriad challenges to navigate in this business. From securing the right location and talent to nailing down a winning concept, dealing with everything from theft to insurance, not to mention the endless stream of fees, licenses, and paperwork, the restaurant industry can nickel and dime...
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Stop! Stop! Stop! … all the printing! These people have to be stopped! We are talking about the nation’s unhinged monetary politburo domiciled in the Eccles Building (The Federal Reserve), of course. It is bad enough that their relentless inflation of financial assets has showered the 1% with untold trillions of windfall gains, but their ultimate crime is that they lured the nation’s elected politician into a veritable fiscal trance. Consequently, future generations will be lugging the service costs on insuperable public debts for years to come. For more than two decades these foolish PhDs and monetary apparatchiks drove the...
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Surprise! Just in time for the November election, this is a negative surprise that Biden doesn’t want to hear. The Citi Economic Surprise index crashed to -7.30, the lowest since January 2023. Under Biden’s leadership (hell, he and his family already own several mansions … on a Senator’s pay), home prices are up 32% under Biden and mortgage rates are up a staggering 160%. Getting young households who rent to buy a home in this environment will require magic.
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I doubt if Biden really understands what he is saying. He simply reads (badly) off a teleprompter. Biden has repeatedly claimed that no new taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. Remember, he has repeatedly said “You have my word as a Biden.” Which is worthless, by the way. There are TWO taxes that are hitting people making under $400,000 per year. First, the INFLATION tax coming from Biden’s/Congresses spending binge, The Fed printing gobs of money, and insane regulations. Biden and his mouthpieces like Karine Jean Pierre (KJP) claim that Biden inherited inflation from Trump. FALSE. Inflation was only...
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Hey Joe! Where is the strongest jobs recovery in history?? BLS reported that in April the US added just 175K jobs, a nearly 50% drop from the upward revised 315K (was 303K)… .. and a huge miss to estimates of 240K… in fact, as shown below, this was the biggest miss since Dec 2021 The weakness was pervasive, and while payrolls were a huge miss, the unemployment rate also rose more than expected, from 3.8% to 3.9%, vs estimates of an unchanged print. Wages also eased back with average hourly earnings rising 0.2% MoM, below the expected 0.3% increase and...
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A video showing the excesses of Communium and how it killed many millions of people
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Fed Chair Powell yesterday said he doesn’t see the “stag” in stagflation. Really? Well, in Q1 in the US… it failed to show up as non-farm productivity – or nonfarm employee output per hour – rose at a measly 0.3% annualized rate after an upwardly revised 3.5% gain in the prior period (well below expectations)… Source: Bloomberg On the flip-side of that – and echoing the market-worrying ECI data earlier this week – Unit Labor Costs soared 4.7% in Q1 (well above the 4.0% expected and the 0.4% rise in Q4)… Source: Bloomberg So wage inflation is confirmed – rising...
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In the time (dis)honored tradition of Haruhiko Kuroda, the former governor of the Bank of Japan, Japan likely conducted its second currency intervention this week, current account figures from the central bank suggest, in another sign of the government’s intensified battle to prop up the yen. Tokyo’s latest entry into the market was likely around ¥3.5 trillion ($22.5 billion), based on a comparison of Bank of Japan accounts and money broker forecasts. The BOJ reported Thursday that its current account will probably fall ¥4.36 trillion due to fiscal factors on the next business day of Tuesday. That compares with the...
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The Fed will likely pause rate cuts/increases when The Fed reveals their plans today. Breaking: Federal Reserve officials are likely to hold interest rates steady at 5.25-5.5%—a 20-year peak—for a 6th consecutive meeting. With inflation still high, rate cuts seem off the table for now. Rate decision at 2pm Washington time. The Street seems aligned. Conforming rates are already up 161% under Biden. MBS returns have been abysmal under Biden/Powell.
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Housing in the US is simply unaffordable, particularly after HUD levied new regulation rising the cost of new housing up to $31,000. Wait for this to kick into the data for mortgage demand! Mortgage applications decreased 2.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 26, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.4 percent compared with the previous week. The...
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Janet Yellen, world class propagandist (US version of Baghdad Bob) and US Treasury Secretary under Biden, was so wrong about inflation. Instead of being “transitory”, turns out to be seemingly permanent. Today’s Case-Shiller home price report was released for February. The National Home Price index was up 6.4% year-over-year. But look at the explosion of M2 Money and home prices. Hmm. If we look at home prices and M2 Money on a year-over-year (YoY) basis, we can see the surge in money printing with COVID and the corresponding surge in home prices. As M2 Money growth slowed, the Case-Shiller National...
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Just add this data point to the ‘the disinflation narrative is dead’ side of the ledger.
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Dallas … and the US economy … after midnight. The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook survey has now been in contraction (below zero) every month since May 2022, falling modestly to -14.5 in April (worse than the -11.2 expected). New Orders also remain negative (but did improve) and prices continue to rise (though at a slower pace). Labor market measures suggested flat employment and slightly shorter workweeks (hours worked index remained negative for a seventh month in a row) this month. However, wit that said, wage pressure picked up dramatically this week to a seven-month high… Source: Bloomberg However, as always,...
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Joe Biden could barely eat his dinner at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And we think he is calling the shots in The White House?? Oh well. Perhaps it is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen or Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. In any case, Treasury bond issuance in 2024 is expected to hit $1.9 TRILLION. Surpassing levels seen even during the 2008 financial crisis. And with inflation, the US personal saving rate is near the lowest level since Obama (2010). And with the core inflation rate still higher than anytime since 2010, households are paying more for … everything...
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The US debt and Federal spending is out of control. As is entitlement spending. In 2007, the U.S. national debt was below $10 trillion, and the budget deficit was about $160 billion. Federal spending was about $3 trillion, and interest payments were approximately $400 billion. Then the numbers spiraled out of control. Yet Biden/Congress keep shoveling money to Ukraine and leave our borders unsecured. Washington’s fiscal situation has drastically changed since then; total debt has surpassed $34 trillion, the annual budget shortfall exceeds $1 trillion, and interest costs have topped $1 trillion. David Walker, the former comptroller general of the...
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