34 Comments
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Instead of a presidential debate how about the two candidates sit down at a desk with an econ 101 quiz.

Expand full comment

I'm a Trump supporter. They would both fail. Miserably.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Inflation is rampant

Housing

Food

Energy

Out of control

Go buy a dozen eggs

Expand full comment

Eggs are a funny commodity as they became "free range" and "organic" and some that drank beer. Prices and product differentiation went nuts.

Eggs were $1/doz in 1984 which was outrageous. I paid $1.49/doz in 2018.

I paid $2.33 yesterday at Publix in Savannah.

https://delivery.publix.com/landing?product_id=324877&retailer_id=57&postal_code=30047&region_id=946096734

Eggs can be wildly high if you're not careful. There were $6.99/doz eggs in the same cabinet as my $2.33/doz eggs.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

Expand full comment
author

there are no egg futures.....making the point that futures markets allow transfer of risk, and eliminate wild price swings in the underlying.

Expand full comment
author

There are no onion futures either, and on a percentage basis, the price varies wildly

Expand full comment

Eggs best 4.50 dozen

Highland park il

Same in San Jose $6.59 doz

Texas $5.59

You must be close to a chicken farm

Expand full comment

I was in Whole Foods Savannah Ga yesterday and they had $9.99 eggs and $3.99 eggs whilst across the street at Kroger's they had them for less than $2.50.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Eggs are far off their highs. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111

Expand full comment

What did you pay for your eggs?

Expand full comment

I think about $4 for the store brand cage free ones. But my (and your) single point doesn't really matter. Across the country prices are a little higher than the recent floor, but still down significantly from the peak.

Expand full comment
author

at the margin, still high comparatively. down from the highs, but supply issues can jack prices quickly. See energy futures prices last couple of weeks.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Agree. The CPI number does not take into account a lot of real price pressures like homeownership costs. Only rent. Also those price increases you talk about are real and the main reasons people are upset. I do not think the Fed can lower rates until late this year at the earliest.

Expand full comment

Especially after ralm and Austin cooked the books in 2009

Expand full comment
Feb 13·edited Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

It's getting mighty damn hard to tell the truth around here............................Ministers of denial and propaganda , i.e. the media will only repeat what the supreme leader(s) tell them to. We haven't been near 3.1 inflation, since, heck I don't know when. Long before most of us on here were born. The year of my birth we went off the gold standard and from that first fiat moment it was every man/woman/non-binary for themselves. I was at a meeting of at that time other CCO's for local banks here in central NC. Everyone of them, and this was 24 months ago, except me, said rates would be coming back down in 12 months. So, 12 months after the 12 months we see no signs of rates going down and frankly probably need to come up another 50 to 100 basis points. If I want to see what real inflation might just actually be, I check out Shadowstats and look at the 1980 methodology number, which is well above double digits still.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Your timing is impeccable - my breakfast this morning at McDonald's (2 bacon/egg/cheese biscuits and small drink) was over $12. Not that long ago, it was around $8.

Also agreed on the WSJ - after 30+ years, I finally let my subscription expire. Frankly, I get much better and timelier news from Twitter.

Expand full comment

Yep. I am a BEC biscuit guy, but I can get two eggs, bacon, biscuit, hashbrowns, grits and coffee at a sit down restaurant in Savannah with interesting clientele to look at for less than $9.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

Expand full comment
author

my twitter news feed is spectacular.

Expand full comment

Jeff, can you post some suggestions for news on Twitter?

BTW, I'm so old that I remember when the WSJ editorial page wasn't pro Republican - it was pro freedom. I'm on the verge of cancelling my subscription, but I don't know what to replace it with.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Thank you. The oil price increase that began the day after the election is still working its way through all the systems. The jobs numbers are always revised down as the estimated parts become actual data. I have to develop rate scenarios for the financial institution I retired from, and I appreciate this support for my flat rate scenario. The 2-yr Treas is up 46 basis points over last month and the 30-yr 26 bps, but 66 bps over the last year.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Out of curiosity what is your opinion of Sam Ro? Seems knowledgeable but married to Rosy Scenario or at least related. A poster of Conventional Wisdom or ??? Don't dislike or discount him but can't seem to get a handle on where he is coming from.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Jeff, your take on the economic fundamentals is the same as mine. However, I'm still expecting rate cuts this year. The political cycle demands it. To be followed by a notable uptake in inflation in 2025 and 2026 as we do deja vu from the 70s. It will be worse if the Democrats win; their war on fossil fuels will go into high gear.

Expand full comment
author

don't think they can unless we have a slowdown in the economy and prices ease; neither is going to happen

Expand full comment

Perceived?

Really?

Given the number of jobs created and the US growth out-performance relative to both other countries and the consensus forecasts, many would have expected the managenent of the economy to be a plus for the Administration. Instead, voters continue to see it as a relative weakness due to two main factors: the persistent pain of higher prices (real and perceived); and the lack of consistent economic communication on the part of the Administration.

~Mohamed El-Erian

Expand full comment

Great discussion. Well played.

The problem with any discussion about inflation is the complete disregard for the fact that the historic inflation for the last two years is baked into the cake and is never, ever reversing.

Meanwhile our resident idiot is pissed because he thinks his ice cream container is shrinking.

We are only discussing the rate of inflation.

What is clearly stupendous is the Trump admin's ability to keep inflation under 2% while having free money -- how did the old boy do that? I think it was the mean tweets?

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

Of course it isn't going to be reversed. No modern government can stand the pain of deflation; the debt would break it quickly.

Expand full comment
Feb 13Liked by Jeffrey Carter

And your worries don't seem to even factor in the coming deficit doom. Taxes are going to go up. For everyone. Even though the 2 old fools both claim they won't touch social security/medicare.

Expand full comment
author

they have to go up, OR institute the FairTax.org.....

Expand full comment
author

But you are correct. It doesn't take an actuary to figure out social security and medicare are screwed

Expand full comment

All's you see in the media today is inflation is down. I don't know where they get their numbers. All's u have to do is go shopping and look at the prices we pay. Plus you have that feeble minded president saying there's shrink inflation if he went out and bought his food he would know this has been going on for twenty five years. The price of eggs at Jewel outside Chicago is $1.99 a dozen. they are not cage free.

Expand full comment
author

it's down from the high. yet, it is still running hot

Expand full comment

Good luck to the Dems running on telling us how good the Biden economy is. You can gaslight the public on most subjects, but not on the economy, when people are out everyday paying inflated prices for everything.

Why this is key is very simple. Most people don’t feel their lives are getting better, instead they feel their lives have taken a turn for the worse in the Biden years. If the Dems lecture the general public that they are living in good times, watch out for a massive backlash. Lots of pent up anger out there on many things that are important to most people.

Expand full comment
author

They did well replacing Santos tonight....

Expand full comment

Elmhurst’s rate increase has nothing to do with inflation. It has everything to do with a city council that has prioritized the wrong things in the budget and then had their backs to the wall when the bill came due for the sewer projects that were required to stop flooding during normal storms. The DWC didn’t raise rates anywhere close to this, which makes it even more painful for residents. Especially in light of Elmhurst’s already high rates relative to neighboring communities.

Expand full comment