It’s a slow-news day today in terms of any one big story, so I don’t have much to comment on, other than a few news tidbits of interest:
Fed Governor Waller adds to the weight of statements by other Fedheads who have spoken since the FOMC meeting, saying he will need “several months” of improved inflation data before he would even consider a rate cut. That comes even after the last CPI report that gave the first blip down for inflation in months. (See “CPI’s Little Head Fake.”) He does not see an increase in rates as likely. So, the Fedheads have been consistent in agreeing with me on this—NO PIVOT for several months to come at the earliest. (I alway add one caveat: All bets are off if they’ve managed to blow the entire economy and banking system up prior to seeing enough months of improving inflation data and rising unemployment.)
Several states have taken steps to block the use of central-bank digital currencies within their states. That is a welcome step that will slow down the adoption of CBDCs. The Fed had indicated some significant moves toward a US CBDC would happen a year ago, but their “distributed ledger,” which is the backbone of such a system, was a failure. It couldn’t handle the volume of transactions—not even close. I haven’t heard much about it since, so maybe those hushed failures have sent it back to the drawing board. (If anyone else knows otherwise, please let us known in the comments. It just goes to demonstrate how secure central-bank digital currencies are certain to be.)
Biden has ordered that the entire northeast gasoline reserve be drained in order to combat gasoline inflation this summer … and then be permanently closed…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
