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For the first time ever, the military aid will include longer-range missiles, according to Reuters. Reuters reported: The United States is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The weapons aid is expected to be announced as soon as this week, the officials said. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons, they added.

The important labor market cost index, the US Employment Cost Index (ECI) fell in Q4 2022 to 1.0%, down from 1.2% in Q3. Notice that ECI is falling as M2 Money growth falls. Fed meeting coming on Wednesday!

... from The Fed, or from Biden, you're certifiable. The Fed meeting is coming. PPI and CPI have relaxed somewhat, but the key is -- somewhat. Problem: The Omnibus spending isn't in the system yet, and thus its impact isn't in there either. But it will be because there's no effective means to stop it other than a refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Biden has said he will veto any attempt to roll back the spending bill, and there's no chance of an override given Congressional makeup. Therefore, what's done is done. But -- and this is important --...

The Biden administration administration's plan to send Ukraine a battalion of lethal Abrams tanks will be hampered by the production timeframe and the Pentagon's insistence that it does not have any in surplus, the Defense Department revealed Thursday. Unlike some of the high-tech weaponry the U.S. has been shipping to Ukraine as part of a multi-billion effort to deter Russia's invasion, the U.S. military does not 'have these tanks available in excess in our U.S. stocks,' deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh' told reporters. The means it could take months before the tanks, which President Biden called the most capable...

The US housing market continues to struggle as The Federal Reserve continues to fight inflation. Today’s pending home sales are another nail in housing casket. Pending home sales declined -34.4% year-over-year (YoY) as M2 Money growth went negative (-1.3% YoY). At least UMich buying conditions for housing increased … to 44, well below 100.

There was a hilarious film with Hillary Swank and Aaron Ekhart called “The Core” where earth’s core stops spinning and the earth gets cooked by the Sun’s rediation. Now we learn that the Earth’s inne core has actually stop spinning. This time, however, all that has happened is that Joe Biden is President which is almost as bad, But also related to “The Core” is that the important Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) are out for December along with PCE price deflator numbers. In short, personal income was up 0.2% month-over-month (MoM) in December while personal spending was down -0.2%. REAL...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge eased further in December, and consumer spending fell — the latest evidence that the Fed’s series of interest rate hikes are slowing the economy. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 5% last month from a year earlier, down from the 5.5% year-over-year increase in November. It was the third straight drop. Consumer spending fell 0.2% from November to December and was revised lower to show a drop of 0.1% from October to November. Last year’s holiday sales were sluggish for many retailers, and the overall spending figures...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is racing to boost its production of artillery shells by 500 percent within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War as it invests billions of dollars to make up for shortfalls caused by the war in Ukraine and to build up stockpiles for future conflicts. The effort, which will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers, is part of “the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years” for the U.S. defense industrial base, according to an Army report. The new investment in artillery production is in part...

Kansas City Federal Reserve President Esther George has urged her colleagues to come to terms "earlier than later" on a plan for the U.S. central bank to exit the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market and be more explicit on how bond purchases will figure into future monetary policy.

If House Republicans were serious about making spending cuts at least practical, if not immediately achievable, it’s easily done.At the start of the Netflix self-help documentary “Get Smart With Money,” a voice actor says, “How do you get ahead without taking out loans?” That, in a sentence, is the maddening thought process that animates Washington — Republicans, Democrats, and the media alike.As we approach the federal debt ceiling, Republicans are doing the thing where they swear they won’t raise it without spending cuts, only to inevitably trip over themselves when asked the most innocuous, straightforward questions pertaining to what specifically...

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday proposed significant limits on levels of lead in processed baby food that could reduce exposure to the contaminant by as much as 27%. The new draft guidance applies to packaged foods — items sold in jars, pouches, tubs and boxes — intended for babies and children under 2 years old.

The average US household is now considered 'rent-burdened' as a record-high number of people are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. According to Moody's Analytics' latest affordability report, the national average rent-to-income (RTI) ratio reached 30 percent for the first time since the company began tracking the data more than 20 years ago.

While the children in Congress and the Administration argue about cutting the Fedcral budget (as if there isn’t trillions of dollars of wasteful spending in the budget), we saw an ever dumber suggestion from Pramila Jayapal (WA-D), Adam (Shifty) Schiff (CA-D) and Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-D): a bill to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether to allow unlimited Federal spending. That reminds me of the Tom Arnold/Julie Ford film “The Stupids.” Yet these clowns keep getting re-elected. In any case, The Federal Reserve’s quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as US politicians bicker in Washington over raising the...

In Idaho a plea deal in a case involving Libertarian activist Ammon Bundy. Bundy arrested last March at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise for trespassing when objected to the seizure of Baby Cyrus Anderson from his parents. The child later released to the custody of the parents and the case against them dropped... Meanwhile St. Luke's Hospital is taking Ammon Bundy to court in a civil case over his defense of child wrongfully taken to the hospital. Bundy believes that the hospital is: "trying to take everything I own"... Seven people shot and killed at two farms in Half Moon...

Inflation in Venezuela hit 234% in 2022, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on Monday, representing a slowdown from the previous year, as the South American country struggles with a deep and lengthy economic crisis. Rodriguez provided the inflation rate during a meeting with Turkish and Venezuelan business leaders. Venezuela's central bank infrequently publishes economic data, and has not given inflation data since October. For months, socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his government was able to keep a lid on consumer price inflation with rigid economic policies, including anchoring the exchange rate, limiting public spending and increasing taxes.

The first headline I saw when I turned on Bloomberg.com was “DOJ Officials Find More Classified Documents at President Biden’s Home.” This is an improvement! So far, the task has been handled by Biden’s private attorneys who don’t have proper security clearance; at least the Justice Department is finally getting involved! But back to the US yield curve. It is now the most inverted in 30+ years as M2 Money growth stalls. Inverted yield curves have preceded recessions in the past. But as China reopens and Europe is experiencing a warmer winter than expected (meaning that Europe has sufficient natural...

I must admit, Joe Biden has a horribly misleading nickname “Middle Class Joe.” Between Biden’s horrible energy policies and Pelosi’s/Schumer’s spending binges, the US middle class and low wage workers have suffered mightely with the inflation tax. Throw in Jerome Powell and The Federal Reserve’s manic money printing and the American middle class has a problem. US inflation peaked at 9.1% year-over-year (YoY), but has declined to a still painful 7.1% YoY as The Fed removes it aggressive monetary stimulus. But to cope with persistent US inflation, consumers have had to dip into savings and use more credit cards. As...

Waning volatility in the U.S. bond market has helped spur a rally in stock markets around the world, according to the latest research note from Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid.Reid, head of thematic research at DB, pointed out that bond-market volatility, as measured by the ICE BofA MOVE Index, appears to have peaked in October (see chart), just as expectations for the terminal fed-funds rate — the level at which the Federal Reserve is expected to pause its most aggressive cycle of rate hikes since the 1980s — stabilized around 5%, where they remain.

More and more eggs are being seized at the U.S.-Mexico border from people looking for better deals down south as prices soar in America.Confiscations of egg products by U.S. border officers increased 108 percent from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, according to Border Report. During that time, egg prices climbed to record highs.December prices averaged $5.03 per dozen, a more than 207 percent increase from December 2021, according to a report from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prices have fallen since then, but are likely to stay higher-than-usual because 43 million egg-laying hens recently died...

During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated that over the next two years, he wants to make sure that the Inflation Reduction Act is implemented properly and he is concerned that whatever government agency is in charge of the tax incentives in the legislation is “going to interpret it differently than what the intent was.” Co-host Joe Kernen asked, “In the next two years, do we should do another series of bills, now you said this — the IRA’s paid for. But do you think we should do a lot in...