AUGUST 11, 2023 – The August report came in at 3.3%, just below my forecast of 3.4%-3.5%. The 3-month annualized inflation rate is 3.1%. The 6-month annualized inflation rate is 4.4%. These figures bracket the annualized rate (3.3%) and thus indicate the annual CPI should be range bound for awhile.
Based on the data, my prediction for next month’s figure is 3.5%-3.6%. I like the data and am confident the next reading will be in that range or a tick lower like this month.
Through the October report, the annual CPI figure should be about as boring as a Miami weather forecast – 88 degrees/77 degrees, 88/77, 87/77, 88/76…I expect annual CPI to trend around 3.5% (plus or minus 0.1%-0.2%) through the October reading.
As an aside, the market is telling the Federal Reserve not to raise the Fed Fund Rate at its September meeting.
Til next month’s report.
Shalom,
The Mann
Tag Archives: Federal Reserve
THE REMAINDER OF 2023 – ECONOMY
UPDATE JULY 27, 2023 – 2nd Quarter came in at a whopping +2.4%. Far exceeding expectations that were below +1.5%. So, we have an economy that has expanded, not contracted, this year! The stock market told us this would happen. For anyone you know that has been predicting a recession in 2023, please ask them if they admit they have been totally wrong. People need to admit their errors and stop being broken clocks. If they don’t, they have no credibility. As I note in my original post below, it is likely the current forecast of +0.5% and 0.0% for the remaining two quarters will change to the upside as the year carries on. Will the economy slowdown from +2.0%-2.4%? Yes. The stock market has said it will be stagnant the remainder of the year. But, will we see two negative figures in a row? The odds are near zero. Plan accordingly.
JULY 22, 2023 – It is all but guaranteed that the recession mongers will be wrong about such occurring in 2023. As I forecast earlier in the year, by Summer (i.e. now) those people would begin to move their prediction to a recession occurring in 2024. Enough time wasted on the large group of media and economists that are broken records.
So, what does the future hold. The past 12 months have been very easy to predict for the economy, housing, and inflation. IF you just read what the stock market (i.e. Dow 30) is telling us. Yes, it is that simple. And, yet, 99%+ of the public and pundits don’t do it.
The Dow 30 peaked in December 2022 after bottoming in October 2022. That told us to expect weakness thru April 2023. Sure enough, the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and the associated bank panic occurred in March and April.
Since December 2022, the stock market trended sideways for 8 months. Just this past week the Dow finally broke thru the 35,000 level after about 7(!) failed attempts. So, what does this tell us? It tells us that the economy is expected to be stagnant for the last 6 months of this year. And, based on this upside breakout, the economy should see an uptick in the 1st Quarter of 2024. This is a very early interpretation as the breakout just occurred this week and is only a small amount above the December 2022 high.
Is the stock market, and thus smart money, correct? Yes. As usual. 1st Quarter GDP was +2.0% (revised from the initial report of 1.3%). 2nd Quarter GDP is project to be +1.3%-1.4%. But, 3rd and 4th Quarter GDP are expected to be barely in positive territory. Exactly what the stock market has told us would be the case for the past 8 months – a stagnant Dow 30 forecasts a stagnant economy 6 months out.
Forecasts obviously vary. I have seen most to be around +0.5% for the 3rd Quarter and 0% for the 4th Quarter. But, I think those forecasts are trending up due to the strengthening housing market (that will be my next post, so please come back:) ).
The recession mongers will be screaming they told us the economy was caving. One, they have been calling for a recession for over a year (right after the actual recession just ended!) and GDP has come nowhere two negative quarterly figures in a row. Two, the stock market has forecast the ups and downs with 100% accuracy. It hasn’t been a broken record.
Based on my forecast that the CPI will trend up the remainder of the year, I suspect the market will tell the Fed to raise the Fed Funds Rate several more times. Note, the public is wrong to blame Powell for raising rates. He is simply doing what the Fed has done forever – following exactly what the market has told it to do. So, the market has obviously priced in all Fed actions ahead of the Fed meetings because the market told them what to do at the meetings!!!
But, I digress…..my point is the recession mongers will remain a broken record as they will continue to say that the Fed’s raising of interest rates is going to push us into a recession. As of today, the stock market says they are wrong and a recession is not going to happen. I put my money on the stock market instead of all of those economists that have been 100% wrong for the past year (and longer).
I believe my forecast of the housing market will be my next post. I will probably combine it with a brief discussion on banks.
Shalom,
The Mann
HAPPY 247th TO OUR REPUBLIC
JULY 4 – Hopefully, everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July. As we are half-way through this year, just a few items to mention.
I am seeing the first articles questioning all of those people that have been forecasting a recession. The tide is about to turn on all those who will have to admit they are wrong. People are finally starting to say hey we had the Recession last year. Thanks for joining the small club of us that have been saying this for a year now!
First Quarter GDP was revised upward from 1.3% to 2.0%. Second Quarter GDP forecasts are around 1% (Federal Reserve is projecting 1.3%). That would be an annual rate of 1.5%, which is in line with population growth. I am probably wrong about this, but I have always thought GDP growth should be about the same as population growth. If we look at a chart of the growth rates for both, we will see they have been declining in unison for 30+ years. I seriously doubt the last two quarters of this year will have negative GDP.
Lastly, Truflation analyzes 10 million data points (so they say) daily in comparison to the 80,000 data points (again, so they say) analyzed monthly for CPI. Thus, a quicker and more encompassing inflation rate is provided. Truflation is down to about 2% versus 4% for CPI, which will be about 3% in a few weeks when the next report comes out. Again, all of those people that a year ago were forecasting 10%+ inflation this year need to stand up and admit they were wrong.
Oh, the housing stock index I mention from time to time hit 80 this week. Up from a low of 53 last October. That is a nice 50% move the masses missed because the media was talking about the upcoming housing crash. Houses in my market are back to selling above list price and instantaneously, again. As I have posted, 7%+ mortgage rates are not an issue for people buying houses.
For a summary of recent economic data, this is worth checking out:
Strong economic data turns recession fears into recession doubts (yahoo.com)
Happy Birthday America!
Shalom,
The Mann
NEW INTERAGENCY ADVISORY ON EVALUATIONS
March 7, 2016 – For the first time since December, 2010, the Agencies have issued a statement on Evaluations. I will include the FDIC link below, albeit the Federal Reserve and OCC have similar links.
My feeling is nothing new has been added. There is a bit more talk about how to use tax assessments – hopefully, this will once again become more common now that The Great Depression II has run most of its course. Also, they make it clear that market value must be of real property only. FF&E in apartments and going concern properties must be valued separately, just like in appraisals.
Please pass the link below along to your bank contacts so everyone can stay informed. Thanks.
https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/fi
nancial/2016/fil16016.html
A GUEST POSTER’S VIEW ON THE ECONOMY
February 1 – Following is my first guest post. Bruce Cumming, Jr. is the author. He can be reached at 941.926.0800 or bcumming@hettemasaba.com.
We would like to note that from an academic-business perspective real estate is viewed as a sub-discipline of finance, finance as a sub-discipline of economics and the classical economist such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo referred to their discipline as “political-economy” linking economies with the political mode of a country, state, county, or municipality. The following is some economic theory and emerging issue that could impact real estate values.
According to the Austrian business cycle theory, central banks (such as the US Federal Reserve System and specifically its Federal Open Markets Committee) can set interest rates too low for too long, which can create an artificial boom and distort the accuracy of data on a trend line basis, often causing what is termed “malinvestment.” According to an article by Mauldin Economics, based upon a graph of the US 10-Year Treasury Rates going back to 1790, 10-Year Treasury Rates over the long-term averaged just less than 6% and the average over the last 50 years was 6.58%. The current 10-Year Treasury rate according to the US Department of the Treasury is 2.06%, or about 394 basis points below the 200-plus year average rate and 452 basis points below the 50-plus year average rate. The Federal Open Markets Committee just increased its rate for the first time since December 16, 2008, on December 17, 2015. The Federal Funds Rate has been between 0% and 0.25% for 7 years. The Federal Funds Rate is now between 0.25% and 0.50%. The US stock market has been in rapid decline so far in January of 2016.
The McKinsey Global Institute’s report, Debt and (Not Much) Deleveraging, dated February 2015, reports that between 2007:Q7 and 2014 worldwide debt have increased from $142 trillion to $199 trillion, an increase of $57 trillion, or 40.14%. Debt has not been liquidated during the so called Great Recession, but has been increased, thereby potentially distorting asset values.
It should be noted that the Green Street CPPI: All-Property Index (which was started in December of 1997) was 22.7% higher in December of 2015 than in December of 2007, its previous peak. Green Street tends to focus on investment grade real estate and is tightly tied to the capital markets. The Moody’s/RCA CPPI, which focuses on repeat sales of properties greater than $2,500,000 in value, saw its last peak in 2007:Q3 (165) and reached that same level in 2015:Q3 (165). The trough reported by this index was in 2009:Q4/2010:Q1 (96), so the index has increased 71.88% from trough to peak.
Austrian economists theorize that the artificial monetary boom ends when bank credit expansion finally stops, which is when no further investments can be found which provide adequate returns for speculative, or “Ponzi” borrowers. The Austrian business cycle theory asserts that the longer the artificial monetary boom goes on, the more speculative and “Ponzi” the borrowing occurs, the more errors and waste committed, the longer and more severe the workout period (e.g., bankruptcies, foreclosures, and short-sales) until equilibrium is achieved through market-based price discovery.
The Austrian business cycle theory is one of the precursors to the modern credit cycle theory, which is emphasized by Post-Keynesian economists at the Bank for International Settlements and by mainstream academic economists such as the late Hyman Minsky (PhD/economics, Harvard). Post-Keynesian Minsky taught at Brown University and the University of California at Berkeley among others. Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis is translated to real estate markets by borrower type.
Minsky theorized that a key mechanism that pushes an economy toward a financial crisis is debt accumulation by the private sector. He identified three types of borrowers: hedge borrowers, speculative borrowers, and “Ponzi” borrowers.
„ Hedge borrowers: can pay both interest and principal loan payments from current cash flows (e.g., traditional mortgage).
„ Speculative borrowers: can pay interest only loan payments, but must regularly roll over the principal (e.g., interest-only loan).
„ “Ponzi” borrowers: cannot pay interest or principal, and depend upon asset price appreciation sufficient to refinance the debt (e.g., negative-amortization loan), only asset price appreciation keeps the “Ponzi” borrower afloat.
If “Ponzi” borrowing is widespread enough during a credit boom when asset prices stop raising rapidly the “Ponzi” borrower can no longer operate profitably (or at all) and once asset prices start to decline the speculative borrower may not be able to roll over their loan principal and could face a technical, if not a real default. The final financial domino is the hedge borrowers who are unable to find loans despite the apparent soundness of the underlying assets. The market begins to unravel, that is to say, a “Minsky Moment” occurs.
Former PIMCO managing director Paul McCulley (MBA, Columbia) is credited with coining the phrase, “Minsky Moment,” when referring to the point in any credit cycle, or business cycle when investors begin having cash flow problems due to the spiraling debt incurred in financing speculative assets. At this point, a major sell off begins because no counterparty can be found to bid at the high asking prices previously quoted, leading to a sudden and precipitous collapse in prices driving market clearing asset prices down as well as a sharp drop in market liquidity. The “Minsky Moment” comes after a long period of prosperity and increasing asset values, which has encouraged increasing amounts of speculation using borrowed money.
Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (PhD, University of Vienna) who taught at New York University theorized that a financial crisis emerges when consumers seek to reestablish their desired allocation of saving and consumption at the prevailing interest rate. The ensuing recession or depression is the process by which the economy adjusts to the errors and wastes (malinvestment) of the boom, or bubble.
It remains too early in the current cycle to confirm that a “Minsky Moment” has occupied, or if the current stock market activity is a short-term correction that will rebound in a few weeks, or months.
It should also be noted that during that during the last downturn vacant land decreased in value at a far greater rate than improved properties that could be income generating. A paired repeat sales analysis study that we conducted indicated that vacant land was declining at a rate of about 1.35% per month (rounded) versus improved sales that were declining at a rate of about 0.75% per month (rounded). Land was declining in price at an 80% greater rate than improved property.
Generally, entitlements are only worth about what they cost during a normal market and are “usually worthless” during a downturn, such as we recently experienced.
The current macro-level economic activities have not yet impacted real estate values, they may and they may not. Time will tell…