Thursday, March 17, 2011

Philly Fed index soars


The Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey came in very strong. It hasn't been this strong since the economic boom times of the early 1980s. Very difficult to ignore the mounting evidence of a strong economic recovery. This is not going to be easily derailed. Plus, the survey noted widespread evidence of rising prices. Things are picking up all over the place. How much longer is the Fed going to be able to ignore this? There is absolutely no need for short-term interest rates to be zero.

3 comments:

Benjamin Cole said...

A wonderful round-up of charts by Scott Grannis.

BTW, before we get too scared about inflation: Believe or not, the CPI in January stood at 220, almost unchanged from 219 in August--that is August of 2008!

Yes, 2 1/2 years, and we are just back to where we were.

Unit labor costs are still retreating.

The Housing Affordability Index is at an all-time high.

So yes, there is some commodities inflation out there, but it will run into a solid brick wall of deflationary wage action, and bottom-dollar real estate values.

Unknown said...

I liked the pretty pictures better. Take another trip soon so I can pre-screen another destination for my bucket list.

Bill said...

Gosh, everything was going pretty well until you left and now it looks like the world is falling into the abyss again. No more vacations for you!