8 Comments
Aug 30, 2022·edited Aug 30, 2022

The last couple of months have dealt with a lot of questions concerning the outlook of the US economy as it relates to inflation on baskets of goods, the housing market, and the debate of whether or not we are in a recession. With the US dollar being hit in so many directions from everything mentioned above (and more) what really surprised me last week was the news coming out that the Euro reached a two decade record low compared to the USD. I was just curious of your thoughts on this and what it suggests about the strength of our economy as it stands relative to other major global economies.

Expand full comment

What affect, if any, will student loan forgiveness have on the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate? If there is an affect, when will this occur?

Expand full comment

I have seen figures that suggest that non-residential construction has been falling for some time as the challenges to affordable and available inputs to construction prevail. While sales are increasing, escalation must be increasing by a greater figure. A standard measure of that escalation is BLS's PPI for new non-recurring construction. I have seen other measures (Mortensen, Turner, Rider-Levett-Bucknall, Construction Analytics) much lower than this PPI figure. What is the best source for forecasting non-residential construction escalation?

Expand full comment

If Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen are two of the top economic minds in the U.S., how could they be so wrong and clueless about dumping massive amounts of money into the economy without causing inflation and bringing levels of new debt that make us look like a third-world dictatorship?

Expand full comment
Aug 30, 2022·edited Aug 30, 2022

One economist predicts a major recession because the money supply has stagnated (Steve Hanke, Johns Hopkins University, CNBC article on 8/29/2022)..."We will have a recession because we've had five months of zero M2 growth, money supply growth, and the Fed isn't even looking at it." But in the same article, he says inflation is going to remain high because of "unprecedented growth" in the money supply. He also states that Fed Chair Jerome Powell is "still going on about supply-side glitches" and "he has failed to tell us that inflation is always caused by excess growth in the money supply, turning the printing presses on." Does any of this make sense to you? Is recession a foregone conclusion because of money supply stagnation or growth? And is the M2 now stagnant or still growing?

Expand full comment

Are home prices expected to fall in the next year?

Expand full comment

What consumer spending and ballot box effect may result from those "anticipating" student loan forgiveness, without actual forgiveness prior to November election?

Expand full comment

Why are bank deposit interest rates staying low and not tracking general market interest rates?

Expand full comment