What a beautiful GDP figure hahahaha Total miss 1.2% vs 2.6% Hahahaha Yep check out those surging GDP figures
Watch energy...oil is falling once again could get very interesting if it breaks $40 and falls into the 30s ..who knows maybe new fresh lows if we start seeing heavy weekly buildups in inventory.
IMO, rent is the single driver of lower standard of living, especially when you take access to good education into consideration. When you consider the cascading problems that fast rising rents create, it is no wonder that more and more people are slipping from the middle class into not only lower standard of living for themselves, but are setting the precedent of doing the same for their kids. Heck, I will even propose that stable rent price is more important than wages, assuming that wages are a reasonable living wage. Not only that, once rent gets so high, even the "usual" 5% per year rise becomes untenable for most people. 5% of $700 is a lot less of 5% of $1200 in real terms when your own paycheck is staying the same year in and year out. Red Queen. If this isn't inflation, I don't know what is. BTW, the FED doesn't give a shit about this otherwise they would make the CPI transparent. Rising rents, healthcare costs support U.S. underlying inflation U.S. consumer prices moderated in May, but sustained increases in housing and healthcare costs kept underlying inflation supported, which could still allow a cautious Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year. While another report on Thursday showed an increase in the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week, the trend remained consistent with a healthy labor market. The data came a day after the Fed lowered its assessment of the jobs market and suggested a slower path to interest rate hikes. "The economy is generating enough heat to produce some inflation, even if the Fed has worries about the long-term trend for economic growth being too weak to lift interest rates much higher for now," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKCN0Z21IT
This is troubling for many reasons. The Plunge Protection Team may or may not include the FED, but it definitely includes other central banks meddling in US economic destiny. BOJ bought 70 bln yen of ETFs Thursday - market sources Aug 4 The Bank of Japan bought about 70 billion yen ($689.66 million)of exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) on Thursday, market sources said. The purchase was the BOJ's first under its expanded ETF purchase scheme. The central bank announced last Friday that it would increase ETF purchases so its total holdings increase at an annual pace of 6 trillion yen ($59.11 billion), up from the current 3.3 trillion yen. ($1 = 101.5000 yen) (Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) http://www.reuters.com/article/boj-markets-etf-idUST9N1AD01O