Households increased debt during the third quarter at the fastest pace in 15 years due to hefty increases in credit card usage and mortgage balances.
Total debt increased by 2.2% from the previous quarter and 8.3% from a year ago.
Debt has surged over the past year due to inflation running near its highest pace in more than 40 years and amid rising interest rates and strong consumer demand.
#wealth
According to Credit Suisse estimates, the number of global millionaires will exceed 87 million in 2026, i.e. a rise of 25 million from 2021.
This rapid rise reflects in part the fact that higher inflation will make it easier to pass the million US dollar threshold. While millionaire numbers in lower-income countries are still far below the levels in the United States or Europe, the numbers are expected to accelerate in the next five years.
Based on FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey conducted April 27-May 5, 2022, among a sample of 2,006 adults that was weighted to match the general population. Respondents could select up to three issues.
#inflation #politics
With second-quarter GDP data due out Thursday, the question of whether the economy is in recession will be on everyone’s mind.
The economy stands at least a fair a chance of hitting the rule-of-thumb recession definition of two consecutive quarters with negative GDP readings.
The last two recessions were in 2020 and 2008-2009, as annotated in the chart above.
Should inflation stay at high levels, that then will trigger the biggest recession catalyst of all, namely Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said “we just don’t have” conditions consistent with a recession.
#economy #recession #inflation
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Americans are most worried about inflation
Share of Americans by political affiliation who said each issue was among the most important facing the country
Based on FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey conducted April 27-May 5, 2022, among a sample of 2,006 adults that was weighted to match the general population. Respondents could select up to three issues.
Source: FiveThirtyEight, Ipsos
This dataset showcases paintings sold at either public auctions or private sales. Works are inflation adjusted.
The current record price is approximately US$450.3 million (which includes commission) paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi in November 2017.
Source: The Art Wolf, Wikipedia, Auction houses
Mentions of inflation have leveled off since March 2022, with readings of 17% or 18%, after increasing throughout the fall and winter months.
They remain relatively high compared with recent history but have been higher in the past, including 52% in October 1981, 49% in January 1982 and 31% in April 1982, around the time inflation was last at its current rate. Inflation had been named by an average of 1% of Americans between 1990 and 2021.
#inflation #economy
Source: Gallup
3/8/2022 There was a massive jump in the bond market expectations of inflation in the last few days.
Discussion of inflation by outlets/sites/authors of all political orientations has increased. However, the Far Right media and Slightly Right media have increased their coverage of inflation more than the Far Left and Slightly Left, especially since the turn of 2021 when President Biden took office.
At its peak in March 2022, the Far Right was talking about inflation 2.4 times the rate they were Dec 2020-Feb-2021 while the Far Left was talking about inflation 1.5 times the rate they were in Dec 2020-Feb-2021. The period Dec 2020-Feb-2021 was chosen as the base because it’s roughly half before and half after Biden’s inauguration.
Source: PeakMetrics
More positive economic terms like “employment,” “jobs,” “raises,” and “wages” were actually talked about disproportionately less frequently by the Far Left in June, July, and August of 2021, but disproportionately more since December 2021. This while all other political orientations talked about it less than they did Dec 2020-Feb-2021.
Despite how critical inflation and unemployment are - we’re experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years and we’re just 10 basis points above the lowest unemployment in 50 years - the manner in which outlets with different political orientations talk about the economy changes over time. The data suggests that outlets aligned with the party in power focus on the positives yet minimize the negatives while those not aligned with the party in power do the opposite.
Source: PeakMetrics
Despite the highest inflation in 40-years, real wages are higher than pre-pandemic as of May 2022. Real wages in May 2022, as calculated by the ratio of Avg. Hrly Earnings to CPI, is actually up 1.4% since Jan 2020.
Average Hourly Earnings are of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees, Total Private, which Paul Krugman used in his Jan 25th op-ed discussing the inflation narrative.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Inflation rose further in May to 8.5% over a year ago, while the rate of wages increases actually cooled slightly, rising only 6.5% compared to a year ago.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Despite the highest inflation in 40-years, real wages are higher than pre-pandemic as of March 2022. Real wages in March 2022, as calculated by the ratio of Avg. Hrly Earnings to CPI, is actually up 1.8% since Jan 2020!
Average Hourly Earnings are of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees, Total Private, which Paul Krugman used in his Jan 25th op-ed discussing
the inflation narrative.
Source: Ratio of Average Hourly Earnings to CPI
#economy #inflation #wages