Fed Chair Powell Says Economic Pain Coming

You forget the - sign. These things matter

 

This one is a more accurate picture of our debt problem would you not agree? Same source

Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product

 

I don’t think it’s any more or less accurate than mine because the deficit is the deficit, but what does your graph prove that my graph didn’t relative to my initial point?

 

Taking financial and monetary guidance from Dana Milbank is the equivalent of getting defensive guidance from Todd Grantham or letting Jeffrey Epstein chaperone your daughter’s Girl Scout Troop. He is a hack.

I do not understand all the quibbling from the lefties here. The S&P has dropped 6% in the last 10 days. There are many, many dark clouds on the horizon from 2Q earnings, the Fed just drew a line in the sand with their stance in regard to inflation. The 6% is net of the approximate 2+% gain on Thursday from a rumor that Powell would pivot.

We are in one heck of a bind. I sure hope that you all are just posting your nonsense for the sake of pulling other posters chains and not really investing like your talking. I agree with the majority of financial managers who do not believe that the market has priced the coming stagflation into the market. If the dark clouds from 2Q start raining job cutbacks later this year it is going to get butt ugly in the stock market.

Economic Laws are just as real as Laws of Physics. We have been dancing along with the money printing for over 20 years and all signs point to the band about to be closing the show.

 

I do find it rather meta that him announcing pain was coming caused instant market pain. I probably lost 25k Friday.

 

Apparently some people have decided that the way to beat inflation is to buy a year's worth of meat at a time.

Half cows, entire pigs: Families are buying meat in bulk to save money

 

That seems rather irrational. One power outage and the “spoilage” would be multiples more than he would’ve paid with inflation.

Inflation isn’t that bad. Plus as we saw with the toilet paper hoarders, it’s irrational thinkers like this that actually cause shortages and inflation.

 

More Than 8 Million Americans Are Late on Rent as Prices Increase

A ‘Tsunami of Shutoffs’: 20 Million US Homes Are Behind on Energy Bills

But it's not all that bad out there.

 

I think it was his goal. This talk may mean we need less interest hikes. He wanted to cool down the markets and he did.

 

Economic pain is here. It's been here. It starts with my AT&T U-Verse monthly bill.

 

I think you are being really loose with the term irrational. There are many rational beliefs that could justify that behavior.

 

Wait till you see what happens to your electric bill next year. FP&L is hammering industrial customers this year (rates are up at least 40%, and will probably go higher until A/C season is done at the end of September), and will proceed to hammer commercial and residential customers next year. You'll see.

 

And we can thank the Florida Public Service Commission for approving it.

You know, government by the people, for the people...

 

It's not all greed. Electrical utilities across the nation are having to spend a ton of money to:

a) upgrade the grid to prepare for electric vehicles.

b) increase the percentage of renewable energy used on the grid. A lot of solar farms are being installed in Florida.

and

c) defend the grid from terrorists and lunatics. Electricity for the entire country could be shut down by disabling as few as nine of the 55,000 substations across America, according to the 60 Minutes show that was on last night. Terrorists tried to knock out electricity to Silicon Valley about 8 years ago by shooting bullet holes in the coolant loops for the transformers. Multiple people had rifles blazing for 20 minutes in the night attack. It was almost enough to shut down the substation on high temperature. While it is rare to have attacks that are this well-organized, there are hundreds of attacks a year on electrical infrastructure across the country. Utilities are having to surround their substations with tall concrete walls. That's going to cost a lot of money.

We are still a long way away from being independent on fossil fuels, however. Our dependence on natural gas is what is going to cause the rise in electrical rates next year. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has driven the cost of natural gas up to astronomical levels, sometimes as much as triple what it was at times last year. Since the fuel charge is often 50-70% of your electric bill, even doubling the cost of natural gas will add another 50-70% to your electric bill by itself. And you still need to pay for the solar farms, the concrete walls and the additional towers, wiring, and transformers.

 

Not to mention rigging a few elections and buying a few politicians.

 

Yep, go check out what's going on over in Europe...not good!

 

I guess it turns out he was dead wrong as was everyone of our resident righties from page 1. The new tune from Powell this morning is much cheerier:

Live updates: Markets remain higher as Fed Chair Powell says no evidence of a recession

Powell doesn't see recession around the corner

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell weighed in on the US economy's future Wednesday — and it sounded promising.

In response to a question from Rep. Al Green of Texas, Powell said the economy is expected to continue with its expansion at a solid clip this year. That's the broad expectation among economists and Fed officials, with the median projection for growth this year at a healthy 1.4% annualized rate, according to their December projections.

"I will say there's no evidence or no reason to think that the US economy is in, or in some kind of, short-term risk of falling into a recession," he said. "Having said that, though, there's always a meaningful possibility that an economy will fall into recession. I don't think that possibility is elevated at the current time."

Economic growth remains solid, the job market is still in good shape and rate cuts are likely this year. The Atlanta Fed is currently projecting first-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, to register north of 2%. The government releases its latest jobs snapshot on Friday morning, and economists are expecting the US economy added a robust 200,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.7%, according to FactSet estimates as of Wednesday around noon.

 

Good news for this year.

 

Also today:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/...Reuters),poll of foreign exchange strategists.

BENGALURU, March 6 (Reuters) - A strong U.S. dollar will maintain the status quo in the near term, as markets brace for a risk the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut gets delayed to the second half of this year, according to a Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists.

Shrugging off a weakening trend late last year, the dollar has gained against nearly every currency tracked by traders and investors, and is up nearly 2.5% for the year.

Much of the greenback's recent strength is based on stronger-than-expected U.S. economic performance and receding calls for early Fed rate cuts. The timing of the latter is likely to have a bigger say on the currency's moves in the near-term.

"Over the next three months, I think we're probably going to see the dollar hold in the ranges we've been seeing since the start of the year," said Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank.

 

I think the headline should read.

After 3 years of trying to cause one, Powell doesn't see recession around the corner

Dark Brandon and his unstoppable economy foiled his evil plans.