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New Highs For Gold, Interest Rates Rise, But Maybe Deflation Ahead?

The word of the day is “uncertainty.” Which may well lead to far more disruptions and dislocations in global markets. Gold is signaling that maybe something is really broken this time. Europe’s solution? Oh, the usual; go to war.

The User's Profile davefairtex April 13, 2025
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My (rough) estimate of the deflationary impact of a complete magic-money cutoff is around 8%.  Of course, the Fed will eventually “print” (after a long enough wait to punish Trump – because the Fed is comprised of Blue Hats, and Trump = Hitler), but will it be enough?  And if the magic money machine scope is disclosed, Fed printing might actually make the situation worse due to the confidence hit post-magic-money disclosure.  “Oh, they’re using a FED magic money machine.  Bail out of the buck faster!”


Consumer Economy

Producer Prices (PPIACO); -0.37% m/m
CPI All Urban (CPIAUCSL); -0.05% m/m

Both Producer Prices and CPI fell this month. But nobody noticed – nobody cared.  Trump-Flation has become Trump-Crash. “Look! TrumpCrash-Squirrel!”  Dropping oil prices tends to result in a falling PPI, and boy, have those oil prices dropped.

Overall, this looks deflationary.

Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation: Surging Prices of Food, Housing, Medical Care Meet Plunging Prices of Gasoline & Travel Services [Apr 10] (source – wolfstreet);

My favorites from Wolf’s table:
+ Vaxxident Insurance -0.8% m/m
+ Vaxxident Repair +0.8% m/m
+ Vaxxident Medical Care/Insurance +0.5% m/m

Credit & Rates

Fed Balance Sheet (WALCL), 6.727T +4.0B, (+0.06% w/w), (prior -0.25% w/w)
30 Year Mortgage Rate (MORTGAGE30US); 6.62% -2 bp
10 Year Treasury (DGS10); 4.51% +50 bp
20 Year Fund (TLT); -6.42%
AAA-10 Year Spread (AAA10Y); 1.26% +2 bp

The Fed did mostly nothing, and bank credit expanded modestly (4.68% annualized). That feels neutral, rather than deflationary.

The increase in the 10-year yield was the big news; the 50 basis point move (resulting in a loss of 6.42% for TLT) was massive. Looking back through history (since 1962), this weekly move was in the top 20. Almost all of the other weekly 50+ bp increases were back during Jimmy Carter; 1979-1981.

I was concerned that this massive increase in Treasury yields reflected a panic out of US government assets – the dreaded confidence collapse in the US government.  To confirm, I looked up the AAA/10Year spread, expecting to see bad news. 

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Goat Lady:
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