re: Powell: Fed can maintain higher rates for "as long as needed"

quote:

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But, but, but all the realtors ( mainly male ones) that I know took to face book and said there would be three rate cuts this year. Clowns

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My favorite was someone on Money saying, back when cuts didn't happen in February, that he could still see five cuts happening this year.

This admission by JPow is on the same level of their realization that inflation wasn't going to be "transitory" after all. I've been saying for months we would be lucky to get ANY cuts this year, much less three and that we are much more likely to see an increase before we see a cut.

Here's the thing many seem to not want to realize: more inflation is coming. Constant consumer debt creation and constant escalating federal debt creation are already creating more inflation, but we're very likely to see the pace pick up over the summer due to oil.

OPEC doesn't look to be raising their production to any significant amount anytime soon but demand is expected to escalate. We're at our max for gasoline refinement and we're getting into the more costly summer blends. Prices at the pump (nationally) are up ~$.20/gallon from a month ago (which is ~$.02 less than this time last year) and we don't have enough SPR to lessen the impact. At this point, $4/gallon (nationally) before the summer is out is likely.