Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation: Pace Slows from Spike Last Month, but 6-Month CPI Accelerates Further, Worst Increase since September 2023 by Wolf Richter • Mar 12, 2025 • 73 Comments Natural gas and electricity pushed up energy costs in February, despite drop in gasoline prices. Used vehicle prices continued to surge.
Kohl’s Spirals into Brick-and-Mortar Meltdown, Blames “Constrained” Consumers, but it’s Just Losing them to Ecommerce, which is Booming by Wolf Richter • Mar 11, 2025 • 103 Comments The stock plunged 24% today to lowest since 1997, down 89% from peak, and has joined our Imploded Stocks.
Labor Market Dynamics Tighten Further. Job Openings, Quits, Hires Rise, Layoffs & Discharges Drop, Back Fed’s Wait-and-See by Wolf Richter • Mar 11, 2025 • 16 Comments The low point was in September. The Fed faces a scenario of re-accelerating inflation amid a retightening labor market.
Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily by Wolf Richter • Mar 10, 2025 • 99 Comments Natural gas accounts for 42% of electricity generation. It’s feedstock for fertilizers. It’s widely used for heating. And 19% was exported in 2024.
Why the Fed Considers “Pausing or Slowing” QT “Until the Resolution of the Debt Ceiling Situation” by Wolf Richter • Mar 8, 2025 • 80 Comments The minutes mentioned it. New York Fed’s Perli added some background. The Fed will likely provide details at its March meeting.
Federal Government Layoffs & Quits Begin to Show up in the Jobs Data, Barely Dent Solid Labor Market by Wolf Richter • Mar 7, 2025 • 103 Comments Civilian employment at the federal government accounts for less than 1.9% of total payrolls.
Fed Balance Sheet QT: -$54 Billion in February, -$2.21 Trillion from Peak, to $6.76 Trillion, Lowest since May 2020 by Wolf Richter • Mar 6, 2025 • 83 Comments Quantitative Tightening has shed 25% of total assets from peak and 46% of pandemic QE.
Explosion of Imports Causes Trade Deficit to Spike by 96% in January YoY on Tariff Front-Running by Wolf Richter • Mar 6, 2025 • 79 Comments Surge of imports not a sign of weak demand, on the contrary, but imports deduct from GDP.
Is This the Beginning of the Second Wave of Inflation? by Wolf Richter • Mar 5, 2025 • 121 Comments Companies can’t pass on those higher prices? What a bummer. But if they can without losing sales, it’s off to the races. See 2021/2022.
U.S. Demand for Gasoline Faces Long-Term Structural Problem: Plunging Per-Capita Consumption by Wolf Richter • Mar 4, 2025 • 143 Comments Even as miles driven inched to a record and the population surged, gasoline consumption in 2024 was where it had been 20 years ago.
