Inflation/Deflation

Shadowstats presents what they claim to be the original methodology used by the government to calculate the rate of inflation in the U.S. but Shadowstats' John Williams is not calculating inflation any differently. He is not using the 1980s or 1990s methodology... [Instead,] all he's is doing is taking the CPI data and adding on an arbitrary constant to make it look like inflation is higher!

The argument that the past 10 years of low interest rates has just been an anomaly which will normalize to higher levels in the next couple of years is not going to unfold. Interest rates will be perpetually low for the rest of our lives! Here's why.

The Fed's buying of U.S. Treasuries by creating currency (paper money) out of thin air is inflationary (either now or long term) and those that do not accept this premise are, with all due respect, daft, and is sure to result in a momentous growth in the value of hard assets such as gold and silver. Here's why.

A temporary period of deflation will result from the end of the Fed's massive asset purchases followed by a period of inflation that will make the '70s seem like an era of hard money. Here's why.

There have been many econoblog posts of the form, "ha, ha, the people predicting inflation have been wrong so far, when will they give up?". Let me try to explain why we know high inflation is coming eventually.

Should the Fed raise interest rates at some point in the future, as is widely expected, such higher interest rates might bring far worse consequences than can be achieved by simply staying the course. While some small, even token, rate hike would be tolerable, a return to historical norms could reap consequences in the general economy far beyond the direct effect on the federal government’s fiscal status. The fact is that the federal government is ensnared in a debt and interest rate trap of its own making from which it will be difficult to extricate itself.

Though the stock, bond and currency markets, at the moment, are preoccupied with the question of when the first interest-rate increase will happen, the real story lies in where interest rates are ultimately headed because that answer defines where stock, bond and currency prices are ultimately headed and the reality, dear reader, is that the Fed simply cannot — and will not — allow interest rates to crawl very high. Why is that you ask? Read on!

To understand how the stock market behaves it is imperative to realize that the stock market is overwhelmingly influenced by interest rates. It’s difficult to overstate this key fact. Interest rates are the bone and marrow of the stock market. More specifically, the stock market is ruled by long-term and short-term interest rates creating an overriding framework for what drives the market in which different sectors do better or worse at different points in the economic cycle. This article explains the behavior more fully.

With all of the things in the world to worry about, how much should we worry about a sudden sharp increase in UST yields? The short answer is not much and here is why.

After a long period of very low interest rates following the global financial crisis the central banks of the U.S. and U.K. are planning to gradually tighten their easy monetary policies as their economies improve. When their benchmark interest rates go up, interest rates elsewhere will go up to so should we worry if and when global financial conditions tighten?