Inflation, a Looming Port Strike, & More

Week in Review: Sept. 23-27

This was a great week of economic news, with the glaring exception of a looming dockworker strike at east coast ports. Be sure to check out Anirban’s post from yesterday (free to all subscribers) if you haven’t seen it yet.

Monday

A Looming Port Strike

Dockworkers at as many as 36 ports along the east and gulf coasts are (quite probably) going to go on strike on October 1^st. The disagreement regards pay and port automation, something the U.S. has been slow to adopt.

This is, to say the least, bad. A prolonged strike could cause product shortages, raise freight rates, and cause a (hopefully small) rebound in inflation.

Hopefully they’ll reach an agreement so that we can forget all about this, but odds are we’ll be writing about this in more depth next Friday.

TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers

Travel volumes picked up over the past week, according to TSA data, and are back to being about 2.5% above 2023 levels.

Gas Prices & Diesel Prices

Gas prices stayed at an average of $3.31/gallon this week. Diesel prices inched up to $3.54/gallon, but that’s still really close to a three-year low.

Tuesday

Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index

This measure of consumer sentiment fell sharply in September, with all five components of it contributing to the decline. This could be due to election uncertainty and inflation fatigue, but it could also be a legitimate reaction to a slowing labor market.

S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

Nationwide home prices increased about 5% between July 2023 and July 2024, according to this measure, but are up just 0.1% on a monthly basis.

Wednesday

New Home Sales