Friday, April 1, 2011

PRICE HIKE ON EVERY ISLE? INFLATION, WALMART, & THE FED

WAL-MART SIGNALS AN END TO EVERYDAY LOW PRICES?

USA Today featured an interview with Wal-Mart's CEO Bill Simon.





At 3:34 in the video the Mr. Simon discusses inflation and outlines where he sees it coming from.

DOES THE FED HAVE IT'S EYE ON INFLATION?
So we have Fed Governor Bullard suggesting that inflation may be a problem as outlined in the post from several days ago (MINISTRY OF DISINFORMATION - BULLARD SPEAKS) and now we have the interview with a leading retailer stating that prices of everything are about to go up. 

What next?  Well today we have an article in the WSJ highlighting more misdirection from the Fed in the following note;
DUDLEY - WHY WHAT HE SAID MATTERS.

In the WSJ article by Matt Phillips we note that the President of the Minneapolis Fed, Narayana Kocherlakota, said he expected “a big upward movement” in core inflation — inflation excluding volatile food and energy prices — from about 0.8% late last year to about 1.3% by year-end.

The market needed to snap to attention because this comment combined with Bullard's earlier speech in France started to indicate that the Fed may be signaling some sort of return to a less accommodative policy for interest rates and markets.  Now Kocherlakota isn't seen as an inflation hawk so this also adds to the importance of the statement.  But before we get too excited that the Fed might step off the accelerator of the car that is careening toward the edge of a cliff like Thelma and Louise, we had another statement that just seems to make you wonder what planet these guys live on.

JOBS DATA SAYS KEEP ON PRINTING!

Bill Dudley, President of the NY Fed (the only one that matters) stated today;

“Even if we were to generate growth of 300,000 jobs per month, we would still likely have considerable slack in the labor market at the end of 2012,” he said, adding “the unemployment rate is much too high.”

Dudley is a close ally to Bernanke and is seen to be steadfastly in his camp in terms of their view on interest rates.  So go ahead Bullard, Plosser, Hoenig, and Kocherlakota, spew out your logical double speak about how the Fed is actively watching for signs of overheating and inflation, the NY Fed and Bernanke are the only members that matter and we know they are committed to driving this convertible over the edge in a blaze of glory.

Thelma and Louise Final Scene -



Be Careful!

GOATMUG