CPI inflation July 2023: Inflation rose 3.2% annually
The consumer price index rose 3.2% from a year ago in July, a sign that inflation has lost at least some of its grip on the U.S. economy. Prices accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, in line with the Dow Jones estimate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. However, the annual rate […]
AIER’s Everyday Price Index Rises 0.34 percent in July 2023
AIER’s Everyday Price Index (EPI) increased by 0.34 percent in July 2023. With this increase, the index stands at 285.2, 0.5 percent below its level one year ago in July 2022. AIER Everyday Price Index vs. US Consumer Price Index (NSA, 1987 = 100) (Source: Bloomberg Finance, LP) The largest price gains among EPI constituents […]
American stocks are at their most expensive in decades
Try a little, and it is never too hard to argue that the stockmarket looks risky and a crash must be coming. But in the long run such arguments are usually best ignored. Since 1900 American shares have posted an average real return of 6.4% a year. Over three decades, that would transform the purchasing […]
In defence of credit-rating agencies
Fifteen years ago, in August 2008, the world’s credit-rating agencies were in the midst of the worst period in their history. The global financial crisis was about to reach its zenith. It was already clear that the allegiances of rating agencies—beholden to both investors in and issuers of debt—had been stretched beyond a healthy limit. […]
Meme stocks are back from the dead
Last year was tough for all investors, but ones that hang out on Reddit suffered more than most. The Roundhill Meme exchange-traded fund, which tracks meme stocks, fell from $70 a share to $25. Fellow travellers in the covid-19 bubble, including non-fungible tokens (which use blockchains to sell digital artefacts) and spacs (blank-cheque initial public […]
Deflation and default haunt China’s economy
It can sometimes be difficult to wrap one’s head around the world’s second biggest economy. But three headlines in the space of two days—August 8th and 9th—captured the predicament that China now faces. Exports fell by more than 14% in dollar terms. Country Garden, one of the country’s biggest property developers, missed two coupon payments […]
JUST US – The Rising Tide of Civil Unrest
I have said that the reason they indicted Trump’s valet as a co-defendant in the Mar-a-Lago, was to pull the standard “extortion” where he is to perjury himself for the government or face 120 years in prison. This is how they win Conspiracy Cases. Federal Judge Jed. S. Rakoff wrote a book on the extortion […]
High prices are still a problem
Gas station signboards display prices in Bethesda, Maryland on August 6, 2023. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images Thursday’s consumer price index report likely will show that the pace of price increases is easing, but not enough to get the Federal Reserve to retreat on its inflation fight. If the Wall Street consensus as […]
