Inflation/Deflation

Pushing the big problems into the future appears to have been the working strategy for both the Fed and recent Administrations, yet the U.S. dollar and the budget deficit do matter, and the future is at hand. The day of ultimate financial reckoning has arrived, and it is playing out. Words: 1096

Investors got lulled into a state of inflation complacency [with] persistently low official inflation rates in recent years that depressed bond yields along with risk premiums on all financial assets - but that’s changing in 2018. Five drivers of higher inflation rates are now starting to kick in.

Recent economic data has bond yields jumping a little bit on the worry of higher future inflation. According to many this is the main concern behind the recent volatility in stock and bond markets so let’s see if we can’t put some of this data in perspective so we can better understand the risks to our portfolios.

From the beginning of 1990 hyperinflation has occurred in 28 countries around the world on a total of 35 different occasions of which 17 occurred during 1992 alone.

Since the beginning of 1990 hyperinflation has occurred in 28 countries around the world on a total of 35 different occasions with 17 of those countries experiencing hyperinflation during 1992. Currently, only Zimbabwe and Venezuela are plagued by hyperinflation.

The world is careening towards an inflationary shock. As was the case with the beginning of the Housing Crash, few are noticing what's happening and even fewer realize the true scale of what's about to take place.

Savers and investors alike need to begin to prepare their portfolios for interest rate rises against a backdrop of crisis-triggering debt levels and unproductive economies. Here's how.

General increases in prices, which follow increases in money supply, is an indication — as it were — that the erosion of peoples’ purchasing power has taken place...It is not the symptoms of a disease, but the disease itself, that causes the physical damage.

A growing chorus of forecasters see inflation pressures emerging. Even if that’s true, it should be welcomed - not feared. Here's why.

Higher prices (inflation) are a natural consequence of our ever increasing monetary supply and the U.S. Department of Labor tracks those increases via a basket of common consumer goods which is known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) but reveals a major discrepancy with The Economist's Big Mac index. Why is that?