Monday Market Movement – The Weak Ahead

At least the war is off the front page.  

That’s right, just 6 weeks into it and already the Wall Street Jornal has decided the war only merits one article in the main section.  In the NY Times, it’s still the whole top of the page and part of the bottom but Mr. Murdoch has decided he wants us to move on and stop bothering his pal Putin (and, as far as Trump goes – was he even ever in trouble?).  I listed my grievances against the press last Tuesday so I’ll save the rest for Festivus (Dec 23rd) 

The war we need to be fighting this month is the war against Inflation and tomorrow we get our CPI Report, which we believe will be much higher than expected by leading Economorons because EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT of the CPI Report was higher in March than it was in February (7.9%).  

We are living through the worst inflation since 1981 and let’s keep in mind that the minumum wage in 1968 was $1.60/hr, $2 in 1974 (up 25%), $2.10 in 1975 (up 5%), $2.30 in 1976 (up 10%), $2.65 in 1978 (up 15%), $2.90 in 1979 (up 9.5%), $3.10 in 1980 (up 6.8%) and $3.35 in 1981 (up 8%) – that’s a total of 109% in 13 years.

13 years ago, in 2009, the minumum wage was $7.25/hr and, during infaltion that’s as bad as it was in the 80s, 13 years later it’s $9.20/hr (up 27%) as all this talk of phasing in $15/hr is mostly talk so far.  We talked last Friday about how Consumers are pushing their credit lines to levels never seen before – which is financial suicide in a rising-rate environment but that’s what happens when the Government LIES to you and says the inflation is “transitory” – it encourages people to keep spending – as if this is a passing thing that will go away on its own.

We are phasing in a higher minimum wage over time but no one is “phasing in” inflation – it is biting hard and fast on the consumers and spending habits don’t…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.