The Economy

Negative Q1 GDP print just now (i.e. recession?).

At the same time, the GDP price index overshot expectations @ 8 percent (i.e. inflation).

It all equals the S word.

And the Fed still has its thumb up its ass with "hope" as its major strategy.

 

The actual GDP number? It doesn't affect anyone except for people working at the BEA, and they can make that number say anything depending on the politicized pressures bearing down on them. I think they kitchen sinked the number to try to set themselves up more favorably before the midterm elections, but even if I am wrong, GDP as a construct has become absurd because of decades of government monetized debt fueling epic malinvestment and that number passing it off as "growth."

The experience most people are having in this country at this moment in time? What the BEA number they released actually showed (and it is broadly a reflection of the true state of the economy) was that wages are skyrocketing, but there is a wage-price spiral going on, because spending way outpaced that wage growth. ... a reflection of prices running away on the working class that guy is talking about.

In another words, everything anyone with eyes can see is really happening right now. The labor market is incredibly tight, so for every 3 jobs available, there are only 2 people ready and willing to be hired and work. That is sending wages higher; much higher. But the runaway costs of goods and services we are also seeing is more than offsetting those higher wages. ... and we are just starting to see the effects of the spiral, because almost all of the STIMULUSTM that was masquarading as growth in the past is finally running out.

Keep this in mind. The idiots behind all of this -- spending a lot of money that we don't have, calling it stimulus, and the central bank that has tried to monetize stupid behavior for a long time shitting all over the dollar -- blew up an already housing bubble that has also sent home prices into the stratosphere, making a new home unaffordable for millions of people. That has now spilled over into the rental market, and since this time last year, nationwide rent prices are up 20 percent on average. Those working class people that guy is talking about spend a disproportionate chunk of their earnings on rent. I know the class warfare nonsense in the face of reality is satisfying to a lot of people. But anyone who thinks the mess of an economy currently is somehow hurting billionaires and benefitting average Joe is blind to what those people are actually living.