Economics

The Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation index shows an increase of 0.4% in July 2021. Since December 2020 this index is shown inflation of between 0.3% and 0.6% each month.

This indicates that inflation is continuing. Good news is that inflation is not accelerating. Bad news is an annualized inflation rate of about 6% is continuing.

The PCE is the inflation index preferred by the US Federal Reserve. An intriguing aspect of the PCE is the numbers are routinely revised. This means prior month’s numbers will shift, sometimes by substantial amounts.

Update: The year over year change in PCE is 3.6%. CNBC reports on 8/28/31 Key inflation gauge rises 3.6% from a year ago to tie biggest jump since the early 1990s. To be specific that matches the increase in May 1991 and is second only to the 4.2% increase in January 1991. Current policies of the White House and Congress have given us the highest inflation in 30 years. Not yet Carter era bad, but there is time to achieve Carter level performance.

The CNBC article also says some of the Fed members are starting to see the immediate inflation just might be more than just a temporary adjustment to the economic shutdown. President of the Atlanta Fed acknowledge such possibility when he said on-air that he is hearing from a many of his business contacts that they expect inflation go to beyond the immediate-term.

…

Personal Consumption Expenditure for July 2021 shows increased inflation is still in play.Read More »

New claims for unemployment are down about 60,000 per week since my last post 10 weeks ago. For the week ending 8/21/21 new claims were 353K compared to 412K the week of 6/12/21.

The number of insured unemployed has dropped more substantially, from 3.53M the week ending 6/12/21 to 2.9M the week ending 8/14/21. That is a drop of 672K over nine weeks. For contrast the number of insured unemployed was averaging 1.7M in January and February 2020.

Those numbers reveal a slow improvement although the number of people losing their jobs each week is still running double the average in January and February 2020.

Purpose of these posts on economic statistics is to help all of us keep current on what is going on in the overall economy.

What I’m drawing from the data is the economy is improving one little bit at a time. Seems to me the recovery is slowing.

Revised number of weekly new claims in state programs over recent months shows following trend:

• 406K – 5/22/21
• 412K – 6/12/21
• 368K – 7/10/21
• 349K – 8/14/21

Following graphs show the devastation from the economic shutdown.

New claims

New claims for unemployment by week since the start of 2020:

…

Very slow but steady improvement in unemployment as of early August 2021.Read More »

It isn’t just the current numbers that are hinting that inflation is back. Changes in CPI and PCE are unsettling.

There is also a clear statement from the Fed they will nudge interest rates up earlier than they previous announced. Also indications from two big banks that we will see rising interest rates.

6/17/21 – Dailywire – Federal Reserve Delivers Bad News About Expectations For Inflation, Raising Interest Rates: Report – Previously the Federal Reserve indicated interest rates would not have to be increased until sometime in 2024.

…

Expectations growing that we will see rising interest rates and sustained inflation.Read More »

New claims for unemployment are flat compared to three weeks ago. Ongoing claims for unemployment at the state and federal level are declining, slow though the decline may be.

Number of weekly new claims for unemployment was 406,000 three weeks ago and 412,000 the most recent week. The increase in the most recent week offset the decline in the previous two weeks.

Most recent data shows ongoing claims at the state level dropped from 3,602,000 three weeks ago to 3,518,000 in the most recent week, for a net decrease of 84,000. There was an increase two weeks ago, large drop last week, and essentially no change this week.

The number of new claims is still double the average from before the pandemic.

Purpose of these posts on economic statistics is to help all of us keep current on what is going on in the overall economy.

Revised number of weekly new claims in state programs over the last four months to show the trend:

• 728K – 3/27/221
• 590K – 4/24/21
• 406K – 5/22/21
• 412K – 6/12/21

Following graphs show the devastation from the economic shutdown.

New claims

New claims for unemployment by week since the start of 2020:

…

New claims for unemployment are flat and ongoing claims are slowly decreasing as of middle of June 2021.Read More »

Since my last post on 4/30/20, a month ago, there has finally been visible progress in the number of people losing their job.

Since 4/24/21 the number of new claims for unemployment has dropped from 590,000 to 406,000 in the week ending 5/22/21. Graph above shows improvement. Average had been running around 800,000 from early October 2020 until late in February 2021.

The number of new claims is still double the average from before the pandemic. As recently as February it was four times, so that is progress. From quadruple for oh so many months to merely double is good. Not great for all those people losing their job now, but at overall level it is progress.

Purpose of these posts on economic statistics is to help all of us sort out what is going on in the overall economy.

Revised number of new claims in state programs over the last four months:

• 754K – 2/27/21
• 728K – 3/27/221
• 590K – 4/24/21
• 406K – 5/22/21

Following graphs show the ongoing human cost of the economic shutdown.

New claims

New claims for unemployment by week since the start of 2020:

…

New claims for unemployment decreasing at end of in May 2021. Ongoing claims are flat.Read More »

Previous post suggested It’s time to start monitoring inflation. The dramatic increase in inflation rate in March and April 2021 suggests we need to be watching the inflation numbers more closely.

Not only does this help us generally understand what is going on around us, but specifically it helps us understand and interpret our clients’ financial results as we provide audit and review services.

A few articles I have found helpful in the recent weeks providing context on the inflation environment:

5/5/21 – Wall Street Journal – Everything Screams Inflation – Columnist senses a possible shifting point from the low inflation we have seen for a very long time, going back to a sustained period of high inflation.

He cites five general trends which point towards years of high inflation:

…

Background on the inflation environment.Read More »

(Article cross-posted from Nonprofit Update to help accountants understand pressures our clients are facing.)

Spending by consumers is growing while the number of new jobs is not as strong as expected and employers are having a hard time finding enough staff.

5/7/21 – Wall Street Journal – U.S. Employers Added 266,000 Jobs in April as Hiring Slowed – Expectation among economic forecasters was employers would add 1 million new jobs in April. Actual results were a mere 266,000.

This follows a downward revision to the March data.

Leisure and hospitality (that means entertainment, hotels, and motels) saw most of the growth in April. In more detail, there are 331K new jobs in those sectors which offset a net decline of 65K in all other sectors.

Article repeats the comment seen in many of other articles that employers are having a hard time attracting new staff.

…

Continued struggles in recovery of job market.Read More »

The number of new claims for unemployment for week ending 3/13/21 increased 45,000 after decling 29,000 the prior week. Those weekly changes are in the range of what has happened over the last six months. In other words, not a lot of improvement with plenty of ups and downs in the weekly new-claims tally.

Since 8/29/20, the new weekly claims ranged from a low of 711K to high of 965K. average since then is 812K. That means weekly new claims have been bad news for seven months in a row.

For context consider before the economic shutdown the new claims averaged about 220K per week, so after all these months of improvements we are still running about four times the previous norm.

Why this ongoing discussion?

If we’re going to understand what is happening in the economy we need to dive deeper into the numbers. For those of us who are CPAs providing audits and reviews, it helps us to have a deeper understanding of the overall economy.

Ponder the following graphs and you can make your own assessment.

News report

…

New claims for unemployment in week ending 3/13/21 are roughly same as last several months.Read More »

The number of new claims for unemployment for week ending 2/13/21 increased 13,000 after 36,000 increase the prior week. (Previous week numbers were revised upward by 55,000.)

This follows a two-week decline of 153K (1/16 and 1/23). Prior week of 1/9 saw a 181K increase.

New claims in state programs for the last three weeks:

…

New claims for unemployment increase again for week ending 2/13/21.Read More »