E-piphany

Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles here. Investors with interests in this area be sure to stop by Enduring Investments. Plus…buy my book about money and inflation, just published! The title of the book is What’s Wrong with Money? The Biggest Bubble of All; order from Amazon here.

• CPI coming up in 15 mins. Consensus is +0.3% headline +0.2% core, putting y/y core up to 2.2% again.
• Base effects for core suggest better chance for y/y rise for next 4mo or so.
• Stay tuned, 10mins to CPI. In the meantime why not check out our Crowdfunding campaign? https://www.crowdfunder.com/enduring-investments-llc … (Accredited inv only)
• Core CPI +0.203% m/m; y/y rises to 2.235%.
• Core goods remains at -0.5% y/y; core services rises to 3.2%, highest since 2008.
• Housing jumped to 2.37% y/y from 2.11%. Looking at breakdown to see if that’s in rents or elsewhere in housing.
• Medical Care had fallen from 3.29% y/y to 2.98% last month. Back up to 3.17%, which is the general trend: higher.
• Apparel flipped to +0.58% y/y vs -0.57% y/y. Only about 5% of core CPI, but a bellwether we’ve been watching (with little result so far).
• tweeted this earlier…note that strong base effects lifted y/y CPI but next 3 months comparison also easy.

• Within Housing, Primary rents rise to 3.80% from 3.73%. OER jumps HUGE, to 3.264% from 3.147%. Big jump for a big part of basket.
• …and that’s not a misprint. All pressures on rents are higher, and remain higher.
• Lodging away from home is small, but was a drag last mo. Not this mo: rises to 3.83% y/y from 1.32%
• In Medical Care, drugs actually fell to 2.34% y/y from 2.84%. But professional svcs 2.81% from 2.26%; Hospital svcs 3.25% v 3.15%
• Health insurance 6.30% y/y from 5.80%.
• y/y change in Health Insurance CPI

• y/y in med care services – resuming uptrend

• optimists can look at core ex-housing and see a rise to only 1.42%. But that’s b/c goods carry much more weight in that look.
• W/in transportation, new and used vehicles was actually a drag, -0.50% y/y from -0.27%. That’s in core goods.
• y/y core hasn’t been above 3% for 20 years. But will be in 2017.
• y/y core hasn’t been above 3% for 20 years. But will be in 2017.
• Early estimate of Median CPI…+0.26% m/m with y/y going to 2.53%, a new cycle high.
• Probably a good time to mention the crowdfunding for Enduring Investments again: https://www.crowdfunder.com/enduring-investments-llc… Own an inflation manager!
• Bottom line for today: nothing at all soothing in this report. Upward inflation trend continues.

Nothing at all soothing, indeed. A day after the FOMC chose to stand pat on interest rates, core inflation pushed back higher and median inflation is about to push above 2.5% for the first time since 2009 (when it was on the way down). Of course, nothing about this inflation picture, and the rotten internals that suggest higher figures are in store, would have changed the Fed’s decision yesterday. As noted previously in this space, the Yellen Fed fundamentally does not believe that inflation is a threat; if it is a threat, they believe a little inflation is okay if allowing inflation to run hot helps the overall economy and the little guy; and if they later decide inflation does need to be addressed, it can be easily reined in.

They are wrong on all three counts, and we may well be seeing the beginnings of a colossal error. Honestly, the question here is between whether it is only a bad error that is fixable or a colossal error that isn’t fixable without much pain. Inflation is headed higher.

And yet, ironically, standing pat on interest rates will slow down the near-term rise in inflation since it will keep money velocity from rising as rapidly as it would if interest rates were rising. The best way to keep cash inert is for alternative investment opportunities to remain poor! But money growth around 7% is too fast, even if velocity merely flatlines. Inflation will continue to rise for the balance of this year and into 2017 (at least).