Wake me up when we have $2.50 gas versus the $4.90 we have now.
A pound of ground beef costs $6.
So until we have months and months of negative inflation, you ain’t got shit.
We have the best economy in the world.
The energy companies say you aint got shit.
Earlier in the year, Wall Street was mostly bearish about the U.S. economic outlook with many warning of a looming recession. Not surprisingly, many oil punters expected oil demand to crash as unemployment rose and companies cut output thanks to aggregate demand falling.
Luckily, these predictions have turned out to be dead wrong. So far, the economy has proven to be remarkably resilient, managing to expand at a respectable annual clip of 2.4% in the second quarter after growing 2% in the first quarter. The unemployment rate currently stands at 3.6%, close to a 50-year low, while employers are still adding hundreds of thousands jobs every month.
In early July, 71% of forecasters in an NPR survey said a recession is unlikely in the coming year.
The most recent data on oil consumption in the U.S. suggests that consumer demand has exceeded expectations while industrial demand has been somewhat disappointing
oilprice.com
And if you don't like current gas prices, you can thank Jared Kushners bestest buddy.
Oil prices globally have been firmly above
$80 per barrel, however, the market at large has kept surprisingly mum about the key factor in the price rally of July-August, namely Saudi Arabia’s voluntary production cuts.
Were it not for Riyadh, the pressure on refiners would have been significantly lower, likewise with the sourcing of medium sour barrels that suddenly became the most coveted feedstock. Saudi Arabia’s production cuts are gradually moving into their third month of existence, lowering total crude exports out of the country below 6 million b/d, the lowest pace of outflows since the spring of 2021.
Saudi Arabia’s production cuts are gradually moving into their third month of existence, creating a level of backwardation that the oil markets hasn't seen in a long time
oilprice.com
And be careful who you get your inflation information from.
The New York Times does it again. I mean, how stupid is this? The NYT’s
big scoop on today’s inflation numbers was that inflation “ticked up” to 3.3% in July, from 3.0% in June. Sounds ominous, right?
Wrong!
The only reason the “headline” rate rose was because last July’s (of 2022)
decrease in prices fell off the 12-month calculation. Got that? Inflation “ticked up” in July, supposedly making the Fed’s job harder getting inflation down, not because prices actually ticked up in July — they didn’t — but because a price decline from year ago July fell out of the 12-month calculation.
What idiocy.
www.investing.com
