Fed up and Under-Fed All at the Same Time

The Great Recession

The Fed is going to tighten an already tight labor market by making sure more of the workers among the too-few workers we currently have are laid off in order to reduce production that spent most of the year lower than last year’s production in order to lower prices that are, in good part, too high because of product shortages.

If that makes sense to you, the Fed is your friend.

Where we’re going or where we are?

And, if you are a friend of the Fed, you will be among the many who believe we are not yet in a recession, even though the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has never been this low without ALREADY BEING IN a recession:

OK, in the dot-com bust around 2001 we were about a month shy of being in the declared recession when the PMI hit this level. But all other recessions were solidly in the red once this barometer was this low. However, I’ve been barking up this tree all year, and all I have to show for it so far is a mouthful of bark. So, go ahead and believe we’re not already in a recession, in spite of those two quarters of negative GDP earlier this year if you want.

And then you’ll be a friend of the Fed.

Before you do though, even Zero Hedge says this reading “screams recession“:

In 55 years, this level of Chicago PMI has never not failed to coincide with a recession.

I’m not sure what “never not failed” means, but I think what they really meant was “a reading this low has never failed to coincide with a recession.” Indeed, the graph shows the two always arrive hand-in-hand, even if once recession slipped in the door a shoulder ahead of PMI. Not surprisingly, this recent reading was considerably lower than all twenty-five economists who were surveyed thought it would be. Economists rarely see a recession coming until it’s already half over.

Elon Musk says the Fed must cut rates ‘immediately’ to stop a massively amplified severe recession:

The rest is here: https://thegreatrecession.info/blog/fed-up-and-under-fed/

One thought on “Fed up and Under-Fed All at the Same Time

Join the Conversation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*