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Post by jeffolie on Apr 15, 2008 19:00:40 GMT -6
PPI --> Up Yours Ben Up 1.1 on finished goods (which was double expectations), 2.3% on intermediate goods and up 8% (!) on crude goods. The really, really bad news is that the finished goods index has now risen at more than ten percent (10.2 and 11.5, respectively) in the last two quarters. What's worse is that ex-food and energy the rate went from a "pretty-decoupled" 2.2% rate in 4Q 2007 to a "oh oh" 5.0% in the first quarter of 2008. But the truly ugly number inside the release was the crude goods index, which was up sixty seven percent in the last quarter of 2007 and actually ROSE to 73.4% in the first quarter of 2008! Read that again folks - a 73% annualized increase in crude inputs?! The odds of such reforms happening? Zero, until and unless Middle America wakes up and gets on the phone instead of swilling its collective beer. market-ticker.denninger.net/These outlying, outsized inflationary increases will result in the producers and/or retailers passing along the price increases or eating them thus reducing their profit margins. Unprofitable business do not stay in businesses very long. jeffolie
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 15, 2008 20:22:01 GMT -6
Denninger's got some great suggestions on how to fix the economy in his April 15th Post:
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