The great inflation scare is a thing of the past
Put another nail in the coffin of the inflation menace that bedeviled the US and global economy. July’s CPI inflation report showed core inflation (which excludes volatile food and energy prices) was ...
Mortgages are getting a bit cheaper
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.55% this week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That’s the biggest weekly drop in more than two years, taking home loan rates down to their lowe...
Stick or twist: Will the Fed cut rates after its historic hiking cycle?
The first cut is the deepest Within a few hours of this email landing in your inbox, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision. A consensus has been built around a maintaini...
Top Dollars: There's more $100 bills in circulation than ever
Benjamax America's national wallet is stuffed with $100 bills. That’s the conclusion from Fed data reported by the WSJ , which reveals that the number of $100 bills in circulation has more than doubl...
I O U: The Federal Reserve is in the red
In its 110-year history, the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, has been an almost constant source of funding for the US Treasury, sending billions of dollars of profits every year to bolster go...
Wages vs. inflation: Wages are winning... for now
Making gains A Labor Department report on Friday revealed that the US job market is looking healthier than many had predicted, with the economy adding 216,000 jobs, leaving the unemployment rate unch...
Gaining interest: Corporate America hasn't been hit by rising interest rates... yet
Owe-kay Anybody borrowing money recently will know that the interest rate hikes haven’t been a purely academic exercise, with mortgage rates and credit card charges soaring over the last 18 months. B...
Inside inflation: Which prices are rising the most?
Growing slower The pace of price rises in the US has slowed, with the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) up 3.2% in October compared to the same period in 2022 . Although it's an overall increase, the...
Serious interest: Berkshire Hathaway's cash pile now comes with some major perks
Serious interest Although likely not enough to offset the rising cost of living, you may have noticed a few extra dollars in your savings account each month, as interest rate rises begin to trickle t...
50:50: A recession is pretty much a coin flip, according to top economists
Fence sitters True to their reputation, economists are once again sitting on the fence. This time, the group is split on the chances of a recession, which until recently, was seen as pretty likely. I...
Growing interest: Visualizing the US budget deficit
Growing interest Last Wednesday, we charted the soaring yield on US treasury bonds, as the US government’s cost of borrowing jumped to 16-year highs. That move spooked the markets, but the focus in t...
Sharp moves: Treasury yields shot up yesterday, taking them to 16-year highs
Shooting pains US 10-year treasury yields, a key measure of the interest cost for future government borrowing, have shot up to their highest levels in 16 years. The benchmark yield leaped yesterday, ...
Unaffordable housing: The market doesn't look great for new buyers
First time? The news on Wednesday that the Fed would leave interest rates unchanged, only the second pause since embarking on a rate-hiking campaign in March 2022, may offer little relief for prospec...
Something borrowed: Mortgage rates for would-be borrowers are hitting 20-year highs
How high can you go? The average US mortgage rate has surged to 7.1% — a level it has not reached for over two decades, according to data published by Freddie Mac last week — as sustained interest ra...
No search results: America was expecting a recession that never arrived
A nice soft landing? The latest growth figures suggest that the Federal Reserve might have achieved its ultimate goal, to cool inflation without sending the economy into a full blown recession — a “s...
Measuring misery: The combined effects of inflation & unemployment
Measuring misery Apart from rising bills, the unemployment rate is another indicator worth watching, measuring — in simple terms — how many people want jobs, but can’t find work. The rate stood at ju...
Stuff is expensive: Prices are above 2020 levels but no longer rising as quickly
Stuff is expensive It’s hard to talk about the economy without discussing the elephant in the room — inflation. Not for decades has the “i word” been so widely used, with the Federal Reserve raising ...
Fixed vs. floating: The Fed's hikes haven't hit everyone... yet
Invisible hikes Last week, the Fed resumed its interest rate hiking campaign, with its 11th raise since March 2022, bringing rates to a 22-year high . As you may have learned in ECON theory 101, rais...
Cash buffer: Consumers built up a cash buffer in the pandemic, but it's disappearing
Buffering When the pandemic hit, many of us instinctively reigned in our spending — partly out of choice, and partly because there weren’t a lot of fun things to splurge on. That set of circumstances...
Keeping up: It's been a while, but pay rises are finally starting to match inflation
Last week, there was a modest respite from surging inflation, as prices rose only 3% compared to the previous year. That was the slowest pace in over 2 years, down substantially from the 9% surge expe...