JD and Joel unpack Peter’s latest podcast and the economy’s current path toward stagflation. We look at this week’s price action, macroeconomic data, and a quote from Jordan Peterson.
Whenever an election year rolls around, domestic manufacturing becomes a more central theme of discussion. Candidates from both sides, who seem to disagree on almost everything else, never waver in their commitment to auto manufacturers in Detroit and the steel industry. Republicans and Democrats never forget to remind the American public that they will try to keep these specific jobs on American soil. These very tangible and traditional markers of American industry seem to hold an outsize role in the American mind, especially considering that the steel industry, one of the most frequently mentioned industries, only employs 143,000 citizens.
The wizards at the Fed and US Treasury have been forced to acknowledge that their “transitory,” inflation is, in fact, quite “sticky.” And with the inflation elephant now acknowledged by the circus of high finance, Treasury yields keep inching up, recently reaching 4.7% — the highest since November. The Fed is stuck: It needs to raise interest rates to tame inflation and make Treasuries more attractive. But the Fed can’t afford higher rates, with an already-untenable cost to service the existing debt and loan-dependent industries teetering on the brink.
The solution to a problem shouldn’t make the problem worse.
But apparently, California’s policy makers missed that memo.
On April 1st, the state instituted a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers, the highest in the US. With California’s absurdly high cost of living, the policy appeared to make life more manageable for low-income residents. Unfortunately, as the adage goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” California’s new minimum wage is poised to hurt the same fast-food workers it aims to help.
Money Supply is a very important indicator. It helps show how tight or loose current monetary conditions are regardless of what the Fed is doing with interest rates. Even if the Fed is tight, if Money Supply is increasing, it has an inflationary effect.
The monetary battle of the 20th century was gold vs. fiat. But the monetary battle of the 21st century will be gold vs. bitcoin. With Wall Street jumping into the game with bitcoin ETFs, a bitcoin halving recently splitting the block reward for miners in half, and both gold and bitcoin hovering near their all-time highs, it’s a great time for a sober look at which asset would come out on top in a genuine, full-blown hyperinflationary financial collapse.
Peter leads off this week with an episode covering last Friday’s stock catastrophe, Bitcoin’s recent performance, and the start of President Trump’s so-called “hush-money” trial.
What is Nvidia? If you’re a committed gamer the question may sound like nonsense. Nvidia, which was founded in 1993, is a tech company that makes GPUs and other products. It originally specialized in making products for the video game industry, that assisted in 3D rendering. If you were a committed gamer, you probably owned their products. If you weren’t, you might not have heard of them.
As fiscal imbalances persist, driven by coercive measures and artificial currency creation, the middle class faces erosion and purchasing power dwindles. But as the world hurtles towards a potential reckoning, the lingering question remains: can this precarious balance last, or are we teetering on the brink of a cataclysmic economic shift?
JD and Joel interview Dr. Charles Steele, Chairman of Economics, Business, and Accounting, at Hillsdale College. We discuss national debt, dollar default, Austrian economics, Von Mises, green energy bills, and space economics.
