Tag Archives: Credit Card Delinquencies Spiking

Jul 2 2024

Yellen Denies Food Inflation


flation

Posted Jul 2, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Biden Yellen

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once again is once again gas lighting the public to believe that the Biden Administration has inflation under control. When questioned about the rising prices at grocery stores, Yellen denied that prices have soared astronomically.

“I think largely it reflects cost increases, including labor cost increases that grocery firms have experienced, although there may be some increases in margins,” Yellen, who has a net worth of $20 million, stated.  She later touted that she met with several grocery store CEOs who said they were cutting costs. After all, Biden has continually blamed “greedy corporations” for rising food prices. “I think that’s to be applauded, I think that kind of thing is helpful, but I would be reluctant to agree that we should be centralizing agriculture,” Yellen added.

She also stated, once again, that the Fed will reach the arbitrary 2% target by next year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is proof that the establishment is completely clueless when it comes to the lives of the average citizen. This is the same Treasury Secretary who touted, “People are better off than they were pre-pandemic.” She is all-in on the globalist agenda to sacrifice the economy of the United States on behalf of foreign interests.

Yellen has said that the US has not done enough for Ukraine, despite sending more money than Zelensky has time to spend or circulate back into the military-industrial complex. When questioned about America’s immediate involvement in Israel after the Hamas attack, the Treasury Secretary proclaimed America could “certainly” afford two wars, or rather, the government would “certainly” be willing to tax the public to afford the cost of two wars and send your sons and daughters to die fighting them.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7384568413810691371?lang=en-US&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.armstrongeconomics.com%2Farmstrongeconomics101%2Finflation%2Fyellen-denies-food-inflation%2F&embedFrom=oembed

A popular video is circulating the internet of a man who was shocked to discover that the exact same groceries he purchased in 2022 for $126.67 now cost an alarming $414.39. He was shopping at Walmart, arguably one of the most affordable grocery chains. Yet they alter the numbers to claim that food inflation has come down since last year. They say food inflation in America eased to 2.1% in May, making similar claims of declining costs throughout the West. Food inflation has run rampant, and the figures projected by governments are a LIE.

We once had Treasury Secretaries who actually attempted to align national interests with policies. That is no longer the case within Biden’s cabinet for absolutely everyone has sold out to the globalist cabal. It was Yellen who admitted America’s largest spending package, the Inflation Reduction Act, was merely a scheme to push forward the climate change agenda.  “The Inflation Reduction Act is, at its core, about turning the climate crisis into an economic opportunity,” Yellen admitted earlier in the year.  She has never been concerned about inflation or the average American citizen who has been forced to reduce their quality of life.

Jun 13 2024

Fed Holds Rates – What Tools Are Left?


Posted originally on Jun 13, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

Federal Reserve Eagle

The Federal Open Market Committee unsurprisingly voted to maintain rates at 5.25% to 5.5%. The numerous cuts others were anticipating are completely off the table, as the central bank said there might be one reduction for the year compared with their optimistic tone forecast made in March of three rate reductions in 2024.

“In recent months, there has been modest further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent inflation objective,” the voting members of the Fed said in their statement. They changed their forecast on inflation from “a lack of” to “modest” progress toward the 2% inflation objective.

Four voting members do not believe the central bank should raise rates at all this year. The central bank continues to exclude food and energy, two of the primary drivers of inflation when creating their summaries and dot plots. They certainly would never include taxation in those figures. The Fed claims there will be multiple rate cuts come next year, but they would never cut rates in the face of war which is completely inflationary and produces nothing.

Raising interest rates can have no impact on demand, as the government will simply borrow more, and the central banks simply have no say. Fed Chair Powell has repeatedly said that government spending is completely unsustainable and the Biden Administration is borrowing against future generations.

I explained in an earlier post why Keynesian Economics is collapsing. That theory was created when the US had a balanced budget and the government was actually expected to repay what they borrow. They still mistakenly believe that the business cycle can be manipulated. There is not much that the Federal Reserve can do at this point in time besides hope and pray for a miracle before that $10 trillion in debt is due to expire this year.

Jun 6 2024

Credit Card Delinquencies Spike Among the “Rich”


Posted originally on Jun 6, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

CreditCardDelinquency_byClass

Inflation can be felt at every tax bracket. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari came out this week and said the public “viscerally hates high inflation,” and for good measure. Everyone is seeing the impacts of inflation on their quality of life. Those defined as rich, the demographic one side of the political spectrum believes must be taxed into oblivion, have not come out of this inflationary cycle unscathed, as indicated by a new report from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

Credit card delinquencies (missing a payment by over 30 days) have been steadily rising across America. The poorest Americans experienced the hardship first, and now those in higher tax brackets are also falling behind on bills. Delinquencies have increased for the last eight to 11 quarters, as indicated by the Fed. Among the poorest zip codes in the US, delinquency rose from 11% in Q2 of 2021 to 17.4% in Q1 of 2024 or 58%. Every region in America has experienced an increase in delinquencies by AT LEAST 32.2% in relative terms.

CreditCardDebt.Chart_

“The richest 10% of ZIP codes have experienced the greatest proportional increase; their delinquency rate climbed from 4.8% in the second quarter of 2022 to 7.4% in the first quarter of 2024, or 54% in relative terms,” the Fed noted. “For the poorest 10% of ZIP codes, the delinquency rate increased from 14.9% in the third quarter of 2022 to 21% in the first quarter of 2024, or 41% in relative terms.”

Credit card delinquencies are now exceeding pre-pandemic levels, and the Fed believes this suggests “that a trend which began prior to the pandemic has accelerated.” Discontent will grow as people are forced to stretch their dollars and watch their quality of life decline. The discontentment is fueling this political upheaval and the people can not vote their way out of this current situation because it is becoming apparent that the elections are not fair. We the people have been discarded by our government.

These delinquencies will fall on the banks eventually. The government does not realize that reckless spending and raising taxes has an impact on absolutely everyone. The people who push for more taxes and social programs fail to realize the larger implications.