When this bubble-to-end-all-bubbles finally pops, it’s going to be incredible. Until then…….
Endless Summer
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
The U.S. is Off the Charts!
Wow, this is pretty sad.
Retail Real-Tell
This morning’s key economic report was retail, and it was a bit of a whiplash for futures. The core retail month over month figure was expected to be +0.2% but was instead -0.1%. They also had to update the prior month’s figure lower since it was, ya know, totally made up out of whole cloth.
Americans Spending Their Money
American consumers remain among the biggest, and perhaps strongest spenders on essential and non-essential goods, however rising prices and sticky inflation are seeing overall optimism sink as their savings accounts are being drained and credit card debts start to pile up.
Though consumer optimism may be reaching levels last witnessed in the 1980s, broader consumer inflation continues to decline with May seeing a 0.1% decline in the consumer price index (CPI), and with year-over-year inflation ending the month at 3.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While prices of goods and services may be cooling, many Americans aren’t leaving the grocery store with more in their shopping carts. In fact, many consumers now feel less positive about the current state of the economy compared to the last quarter of 2023.
(more…)Big Wednesday
Almost all the excitement in the upcoming week is going to be within the span of just a few hours.
