inflation

It has been my assertion for some time that writedowns and the attendant unraveling of the financial system is the most troubling problem during this credit crisis. This process is deflationary by its very nature because credit contracts.…

This is what consumer inflation has looked like in the United States.

Today, the Home Builders Federation came out to ask Mervyn King and the BoE to cut rates 50 beeps. The Telegraph reports:Housebuilders are urging the Bank of England to cut interest rates when it makes its monthly decision tomorrow,…

Global financial institutions are deleveraging because they can't build enough equity capital any other way except by going to Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, cap in hand. So, the Fed and the Bank of England (BoE) have…

The term deleveraging is one bandied about a lot in the press recently. But, what does it actually mean? De-leveraging is the process by which financial institutions and investors reduce the relative size of their assets to equity ratio.…

I don't trust the U.S. government's inflation number for measuring real GDP. The annual rate of inflation in this measurement is only 2.2%, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is running at a 4.0% clip. That's as large a differential as…

The GDP number was revised upwards from 0.6% growth to 0.9% growth. However, what is most interesting is the GDP implicit price deflator. This is the index number the BEA uses to get from nominal GDP to real GDP, the inflation-adjusted…

Bloomberg News reported that German retail sales for April were disappointing for the second month in a row. Retail sales growth is negative in Germany, adjusted for inflation.The reason: inflation. Consumers in Germany are losing…

The U.S. Dollar (USD) seems to have stabilized against most major floating currencies. This includes the British Pound, The Euro, The Canadian, Aussie and New Zealand Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the Japanese Yen. However, many market…

When looking at the 20 biggest markets in the US, home prices have risen at a rate far above the rate of inflation since Jan. 2000. Prices would need to fall 26% nationally to move back to the trendline. However, looking at the 10…