I’m Surprised How Well Retail Sales Held Up despite Price Drops of Many Goods as Spending & Inflation Shifted to Services by Wolf Richter • May 16, 2023 • 81 Comments Dropping prices cause dollar-sales to drop even if unit sales rise. Home Depot today blamed part of its revenue decline on lower prices.
Household Debt as % of Disposable Income Fell to Good-Times Lows, on Much Higher Incomes Despite the OMG Headlines by Wolf Richter • May 16, 2023 • 104 Comments New delinquencies way below the pre-pandemic lows. Bankruptcies at record lows. The OMG stuff in the media about household debt is funny.
Households Far from “Tapped Out”: Credit Card Balances, Burden, Available Credit, Delinquencies & Collections by Wolf Richter • May 15, 2023 • 130 Comments Credit cards are a huge payment method but not a big borrowing method.
Trucking Skids Down Other Side of Pandemic Boom. Freight Rates, Per-Mile Rates, Diesel Partially Unwind their Spikes by Wolf Richter • May 15, 2023 • 40 Comments But freight rates only unwound one-third of Pandemic Spike.
Despite Fed Tightening and Bank Collapses, It’s Still an Astoundingly Loose Financial Situation in La-La-Land by Wolf Richter • May 13, 2023 • 207 Comments After years of money printing and pandemic stimulus, it’s hard to wring all this liquidity out of the financial system?
Fast QT, Fewer Rate Hikes? Bank of Canada Has Shed Nearly Half of Pandemic QE Assets. And QT Continues Despite “Pause” in Rate Hikes by Wolf Richter • May 12, 2023 • 124 Comments It unwound 46% of all assets it had added during the pandemic. Far more aggressive QT than the Fed’s.
EVs Made the First Visible Dent into Gasoline Consumption by Wolf Richter • May 11, 2023 • 277 Comments Gasoline sales have already been stagnating for years, interrupted by big drops in demand.
The Fed’s Interest Rates Are still Fueling Inflation rather than Dousing it, and People Getting Used to this Inflation by Wolf Richter • May 11, 2023 • 222 Comments Turned upside-down since late 2008 with QE and interest rate repression, it still hasn’t been turned right-side up.
Core CPI Stuck at 5.5%-5.7% Range for Fifth Month, Now Higher than Overall CPI, as Used Car Prices Suddenly Spike Again by Wolf Richter • May 10, 2023 • 127 Comments Inflation Whac A Mole. Housing Inflation may be peaking at 8%+, but rents re-accelerated.
What Are Older Office Towers Worth? Here’s the First Sale in San Francisco’s New Era of Office CRE by Wolf Richter • May 9, 2023 • 116 Comments Union Bank made a deal to sell its tower at 75% off original listing price, setting the first new benchmark. Other towers waiting in the wings.
