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Twitter users appeared disgusted at the rising price of eggs and called it “ridiculous” as some labeled them a “luxury item.” Multiple users noted the high cost of a carton of eggs at Whole Foods and posted photos showing prices as high as $11.49. “I never thought EGGS would become a luxury item,” conservative commentator Mike Cernovich wrote. The price of eggs has tripled in certain places across the U.S. in the last year, according to CBS News. The price per carton surged as high as 49.1% in November, according to the Consumer Price Index. “$11.49 for eggs at Whole...

The US residential mortgage market seems to be born under a bad sign … and if it wasn’t for The Federal Reserve, it would have no luck at all. It is the start of a new year and, like clockwork, residential mortgage applications are rising (at least until May). But it is important to realize that purchase mortgage demand is down 44% from the same week last year (YoY). And refinancing mortgage applications are down 86% YoY. Mortgage applications increased 1.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is on track to max out on its $31.4 trillion borrowing authority as soon as this month, starting the clock on an expected standoff between President Joe Biden and the new House Republican majority that will test both parties’ ability to navigate a divided Washington, with the fragile global economy at stake. Once the government bumps up against the cap — it could happen any time in the next few weeks or longer — the Treasury Department will be unable to issue new debt without congressional action. The department plans to deploy what are...

Eggs have been a pretty cheap, basic food across history. Well, they were cheap anyway, until recently: The rising cost of eggs in the U.S. is denting household budgets. Americans in recent years have increased the number of eggs they consume while reducing their intake of beef and venison, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ... In California, for example, data shows the average price for a dozen eggs reached $7.37 last week, compared with $2.35 a year ago. The national average egg price per dozen wholesale is now $3.30, the USDA said last week. The average...

As we are painfully aware, inflation is still high at 7.1% Year-over-year (YoY). To cope with inflation, consumers have been gutting their savings and increasing their use of credit. In November, consumer credit increased 7.9% YoY while personal savings fell -64.8% YoY. The good news? Inflation month-over-month is expected to be 0% tomorrow. So, inflation will be gone in November?

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index is plunging and just fell below 90. The index was above 100 before the Wuhan virus outbreak in 2020, but has only been at 100 or above for only two months under Biden. And the trend is definitely looking bleak as The Federal Reserve fights inflation with M2 Money growth having collapsed to 0% YoY growth. And the Baltic Dry shipping index is falling with M2 Money growth YoY. I wonder what Fed Chair Jerome Powell is thinking?

The White House chief of staff is claiming a victory for Joe Biden on inflation, but many on social media lashed out at him over the continued high prices they're paying. Ron Klain complained on Twitter that the media was not covering new statistics about inflation as much as it did when inflation was at a 40-year high. "When inflation was at 40-year highs, there was no shortage of coverage. But now," he tweeted and pointed to a report that inflation over the last half 2022 had decreased to 2% after climbing to a rate above 7%. While Klain was...

Zoltan! The Federal Reserve will be the backstop of the Treasury market this year to alleviate dysfunction resulting from its increasing size and the retreat of regular buyers. That’s the view of Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Zoltan Pozsar, who in a note to clients Friday predicted the Fed will restart asset purchases during the summer of 2023. In Pozsar’s analysis, relative-value funds won’t buy Treasuries unless they cheapen a lot relative to overnight index swaps, and banks with sagging reserves are more likely to tap the funding markets than to buy Treasuries. FX-hedged buyers have been “priced out,” and...

Consumers can take a lot, but when you start raising prices on staples like eggs and milk, a definite din begins to rise from the streets. I knew something was up during a pre-Christmas trip to Costco, where a frenzied mob of shoppers were exasperated after being told, "We're out of eggs. We won't have any more until a truck comes in!"

US headline inflation began to soar as soon as Joe Biden became President. A combination of massive stimulus spending related to the Covid economic shutdown and his war on fossil fuels, driving up gasoline and diesel fuel prices. In other words, headline inflation rose from 1.4% Year-over-year (YoY) at the end of December 2020 to 9.1% YoY in June 2021. It has now simmered down to 7.1% YoY as The Fed continues to remove monetary stimulus. How have consumers coped with inflation caused by massive Federal spending and Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies? In November, personal savings dropped -64.8% YoY. This...

The December jobs report is out and the top-line number is … 223k jobs were added. That is strong enough to give The Federal Reserve the green light to raise rates. But while it was a good jobs report, it shows the inflation tax in full view. Hourly wage growth year-over-year (YoY) was 4.6% in December. Unfortunately, the inflation tax was 7.1% in November. If we assume that the inflation rate in December is the same, the REAL hourly wage growth was -2.5% YoY. But it is likely that headline inflation cooled a bit in December as The Fed continues...

If you were to ask any Democrat or Republican politician in D.C. about their reasons for supporting Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine, their reductive reply is likely to be ‘to defend freedom and democracy.’### Since the beginning of the war, Zelensky applied draconian measures to restrain the press such as threats of criminal prosecution and fines against media outlets and journalists critical of the government.Zelensky also banned many media outlets claiming they were carrying Russian propaganda. But reports suggest these outlets were merely holding Zelensky accountable. Also, all television channels in Ukraine have been shut down except for the one controlled...

December’s ADP jobs report is out and it is a good news. bad news type of report. First, the good news. 235k jobs were added in December. Now for the bad news, job stayers saw their annual salary growth fall to 7.3% Year-over-year (YoY). But while job growth remains good (which will allow The Fed to keep raising rates), the trajectory in the pink box is slowing. The breakdown from ADP.

Don't kid yourself -- the minutes yesterday made clear The Fed will not be cutting rates in the back half of 2023, and in fact likely won't be done raising them. It does not matter if you like it or not. In fact I do not expect any material change in their outlook until after September 30th of this year, and then it will be six months to a year before inflation can back off. Why? Omnibus. Simply put Powell sees that rising labor costs are driving the bus now, which is the second impulse and wage-push inflation is very...

With rent prices through the roof and the housing market scaring potential buyers away, more young adults in the US are choosing to live at home instead of venturing out on their own. According to data from the US Census Bureau, nearly half of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are not living on their own but with their parents. With rent prices through the roof and the housing market scaring potential buyers away, more young adults in the US are choosing to live at home instead of venturing out on their own. According to data from...

Mortgage applications generally nosedive in the last two weeks of the year (seasonality effect), but Federal Reserce monetary tightening to fight inflation is making the last two weeks worse than usual. Mortgage applications decreased 13.2 percent from two weeks earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 30, 2022. The results include adjustments to account for the holidays. It marked the lowest mortgage applications since 1996. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 13.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from two weeks earlier....

The end-of-year holiday season took its usual toll on mortgage applications. The Mortgage Brokers Association (MBA) report this morning recapped the past two weeks of activity (the MBA was closed during Christmas Week) during which its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, decreased 13.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, the Index fell 39.4 percent over the period that ended on December 30. The holiday-adjusted Refinance Index decreased 16.3 percent from two weeks earlier and was 87 percent lower than the same week one year ago. Refinancing accounted for 30.3 percent of application...

There is something happening in markets this morning. First, banks are stashing cash with the New York Fed on an “overnight basis” although it is looking pretty permanent to me. Repos (or repuchase agreements) soared to $2.55 TRILLION as of 12/30/22. But this morning we see the US Treasury 10-year plummeting -15 basis points. As I used to tell my University of Chicago, Ohio State and George Mason finance students, any 10 basis point shift (plus or minus) is a big deal. Something is happening. The 10-year Treasury yield plunging -15 bps is a “good thing” for the mortgage market...

When gas prices were skyrocketing and hitting their highest numbers this past summer, Joe Biden tried to blame the rise on “Putin’s price hike,” claiming it was due to Vladimir Putin having Russia invade Ukraine. Now, that was just an outright lie since gas prices had been going up since Biden took office, long before the invasion of Ukraine. But that didn’t stop Joe Biden, it wasn’t his fault. It didn’t occur to him that blaming Putin made him look even weaker, as though Putin could dictate American prices and Biden was completely at his mercy. But then when prices...

*SNIP* Stephanie Nash, a Turning Point USA ambassador, spoke out about the issue on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday, saying the threat of drought, price hikes due to inflation and an increasing number of regulations are creating serious problems for farmers. "That's a big food security threat to our future here in America," Nash told guest host Katie Pavlich. "California, they have tons of regulations with air quality, with water coalitions, just being able to get resources they need. It's like they're pushing us into a corner to go out of business," she said. The biggest problem remains, however, that...