Stagflation

Industrial production edged up 0.1 percent in May, the second consecutive month with little or no gain. Revisions to total industrial production in months before May were small. In May, manufacturing production rose 0.4 percent after having fallen 0.5 percent in April. The output of motor vehicles and parts has been held down in the past two months because of supply chain disruptions following the earthquake in Japan. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output advanced 0.6 percent in May and edged down 0.1 percent in April; the decrease in April in part reflected production lost because of tornadoes in the South at the end of the month. Capacity utilization for total industry was flat at 76.7 percent, a rate 3.7 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2010.

June brings us much more centrally planned stagflation.CPI increased 0.2% in May, higher than expected 0.1%, and up 3.6% Y/Y. This is the 11th consecutive increase in inflation. And so much for the CPI ex-Food and Energy which came at +0.3% on expectations of 0.2%, up from 0.2% in April: "The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.3 percent in May, its largest increase since July 2008. The indexes for apparel, shelter, new vehicles, and recreation all contributed to the acceleration, rising more in May than in April. These increases more than offset declines in the indexes for airline fare, tobacco, and personal care." More on the Chairman's failure to rein in inflation in 15 minutes: "The food index rose in May as well. The food at home index repeated its April increase of 0.5 percent as four of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased, with the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs rising the most. In contrast, the energy index, which had been rising sharply, declined in May. The gasoline index decreased for the first time since last June, although the index for household energy increased. The upward trend among the 12 month increases of major indexes continued in May. The 12 month change in the all items index, which  was 1.1 percent as recently as November, reached 3.6 percent in May. The energy index has increased 21.5 percent over the last 12 months, the food index has risen 3.5 percent and the index for all items less food and energy has increased 1.5 percent. All of these figures have been rising in recent months." But the real action was in the Empire Manufacturing Index which plunged from 11.88, and forget about expectations of 12.00, printing at -7.79 in June. The contraction is now confirmed. This is the first contraction since November 2010 when QE2 began. Hint: QE3 is coming. Also, the future general business conditions index fell thirty points, reaching 22.5, its lowest level since early 2009. And the kicker: margins continued to collapse as prices paid fell less than prices received. This is what stagflation is pure and simple; it has also been Zero Hedge's keyword of 2011 since January.

The heavy economic data week begins with Retail Sales, expected to come negative, a drop from April, and PPI, expected to post another solid gain in the past month. In the meantime NFIB small business optimism declined in May, as expected.

Stagflation Threatens Major Global Economies - Inflation in China at 5.5% and UK at 4.5%. Another fundamental factor supporting gold prices and likely to lead to further gains are the increasing signs of stagflation in major global economies. UK inflation data released this morning shows that inflation remains high at 4.5%. The Bank of England expects inflation to reach 5% later this year prior to falling but the Bank’s credibility is increasingly strained as inflation has now exceeded the BoE’s target of 2% for 34 of the last 40 months. British savers and pensioners are suffering from negative real interest rates and this continues to make gold an attractive diversification from a devaluing pound. There appears to be a gathering “perfect storm” of deepening inflation, slowing economic growth and double dip recessions, stagflation, sovereign debt crisis in many major western economies and the risk of sovereign and banking contagion.

U.K. unemployment claims rose in April at the fastest pace since January 2010, showing the very fragile nature of the recent tentative economic recovery. Government spending cuts, austerity measures and accelerating inflation are clearly beginning to impact embattled consumers. In the U.S., stagflation is also an increasing, if unacknowledged, threat as the classic symptoms of inflation - slow growth, high unemployment and inflation are present. Weak U.S. factory output and home building data yesterday suggests that the world's largest economy is slowing down again. Official inflation figures in the U.S. remain benign but hedonic adjustments and many adjustments to the methodology of calculating inflation in the last 20 years mean that that the Consumer Price Index is no longer an accurate measure of real inflation in the economy. This macroeconomic risk coupled with continuing geopolitical risk is supportive of gold continuing to receive safe haven demand. The launch of the new Hong Kong Commodity Exchange will result in Asia having an even bigger say in prices of commodities and precious metals. The exchange is backed by China’s biggest bank and a Russian tycoon and will challenge established markets and exchanges in Europe and the U.S.

Gold and silver have extended their recovery and may be headed for the fourth day of gains due to the continuing European sovereign debt crisis, Chinese inflation (+5.3%) and the real risk that rising oil and commodity prices are leading to an inflation spiral internationally and stagflation. German inflation data this morning was worse than expected jumping to 2.7% from 2.3% due to surging energy costs and despite recent strength in the euro. This has led to the euro falling against all currencies and especially against gold. The precious metals are likely to be supported later today when US trade deficit data is expected to be poor with still high oil prices leading to a very large expected deficit of $47.7 billion. This should see the dollar come under pressure and support gold. Stagflation or low economic growth, high unemployment and rising inflation is a clear and present danger to the UK, EU and U.S. economies and other economies internationally. This is especially the case in the UK where house prices have begun to fall again and may be set for sharp falls. Internationally, we are seeing significant debt deflation where the value of goods and assets bought with debt are falling (cars, property etc) while the value of finite, essential goods such as food and energy are rising. Safe haven and inflation hedging diversification into gold is likely to continue as inflation is deepening and there is a distinct whiff of stagflation in the air. It is too early to tell whether the recent sell off is over and a further correction is possible however global macroeconomic conditions suggest that gold and silver bull markets are very much intact. This is especially the case due to continuing Asian demand with gold again being bought on all dips in China, India and the rest of Asia.

So much for the world's largest economy no longer overheating. CPI came ahead of expectations yet most other key economic indicators confirmed a slow down in the economy, even as borrowing appears to be picking up once again. Could China be exhibiting the very first symptoms of our very own stagflationary squeeze?

• CPI at 5.3%, Consensus at 5.2%, previous 5.40%
• PPI at 6.8%, Consensus at 7.0%, previous 7.3%
• Industrial Production up 13.4%, Consensus of 14.7%, previous at 14.8%
• Retail Sales 17.1%, Consensus of 18.0%, previous 17.40%

"America Realist!" I really like the ring of that:-) Yesterday, I bluntly called out the European state of economic affairs as I saw them in “Liar, Liar, European Pants on Fire!” Today, I present the article published by Property EU, one of the leading real estate publications in Europe which illustrates much of my thoughts on the topic of how and why Europe is nowhere near out of its economic malaise, and more importantly how this may pull the value of real estate down. Well, you can use your imagination for the Lehman like results…

Stagflation: meet economic collapse. The UK basket case is getting very, very ugly, with today's obliteration of Industrial Production putting in doubt expectations of a BOE hike. From AP: "British industrial production fell 1.2 percent in February from
January, an official report said Wednesday, marking the largest monthly
fall since August 2009 and far worse than analyst expectations for an
increase of 0.2 percent. The Office for National Statistics said a
7.8 percent drop in oil and gas extraction was the main reason for the
fall, while the manufacturing sector was flat." And the winner: "It may be that the industrial recovery is past its peak," said Samuel Tombs, U.K. economist at Capital Economics. Industrial production accounts for 17 percent of British GDP." That's the bad news; the good news is that with runaway inflation which is now surging at 5%+ the economy has got to be improving: after all where would all this demand be coming from if not from some massive latent recovery. Oh wait, what's that you say: endless liquidity? You don't say. Well, never mind then. In other news GBP crosses get obliterated as rate hike expectations are put on hold. In fact what you can put on the front burner is more money printing, both at the BOE and the Fed because central banks are so much more adept at "controlling" inflation than deflation.

The continuation of my rant on stagflation, and why it is mistakenly being called inflation in the media and how all of it is being denied by US.gov.

More bad news out of the UK, where CPI inflation surged from an already nosebleed inducing 4% to 4.4% in February coupled with deteriorating budget shortfalls as public borrowing was nearly double the consensus. The inflation number is particularly worrisome as it was the highest since 2008, driven by a surge in clothing price inflation. It seems at least UK retailers have reached their margin breaking point and have no choice but to hike end prices at this point. From Goldman: "CPI inflation rose from 4.0%yoy to 4.4%yoy in February (vs. Cons. and GS: 4.2%). This is the highest rate of inflation since 2008 and was driven by a sharp increase in clothing price inflation (from 1.3%yoy to 2.8%yoy). The public-sector borrowing data were disappointing on the month (£10.3bn vs. Cons: £8.0bn, GS: £4.3bn) but that overshoot relative to consensus expectations was almost entirely offset by (net) downward revisions to previous months' data."

Today the Fed released its quarterly Flow of Funds report which is traditionally used to keep track of household net worth and general leverage. While the far more important use of this data, namely tracking shadow banking data is never in the headlines (we will present an updated version later today), the media is more than happy to present any simplistic information without much thought. To be sure, based on nothing but a jump in the stock market, household net worth increased by $2.1 trillion to $56.8 trillion. This increase was due entirely to a change in the value of Corporate Stocks held by the public ($7.6 trillion to $8.5 trillion), Pension Funds ($12.3 trillion to $13 trillion) and Mutual Funds ($4.4 trillion to $4.7 trillion), for a total change of $2 trillion. What did not go up were tangible assets such as housing, which after reversing its plunge from an all time high of $25 trillion in Q4 2006, and hitting a low of $18.5 trillion in Q1 2009, has now officially double dipped, dropping to $18.2 trillion in Q4 2010: the lowest in over 6 years. In other words, the wealth effect is working, but only as long as the Fed can continue to keep the market high. Other real assets are losing value fast. And while consumers continue to deleverage, and non-financial businesses are just barely adding new debt ($11.1 trillion in Q4 2010, a $100 billion increase Q/Q), the government, both federal and state and local, continue to binge like a drunken sailor on debt, which combined for the two increased to an all time record of $11.9 trillion. So while USA Today may rejoice at its simplistic interpretation that we are all getting richer even as real assets decline in value, UBS' Andy Lees thinks that the household leverage trends will ultimately result in stagflation.

Following a surprising confirmation of a double dip in the UK a few weeks ago, after GDP was reported to have dropped by 0.5%, today the economic growth number was revised even lower, coming in at -0.6%. Per Bloomberg: "Gross domestic product fell 0.6 percent from the previous three months, compared with an initial estimate for a 0.5 percent drop, the Office for National Statistics said today in London." Yet how pathetic would a country be seen if it didn't blame a weak winter data point on the snow: "The statistics office said its “best estimate” for the impact of cold weather on the data remains 0.5 percent. The slump was led by construction and investment. The coldest December in a century hampered the recovery, dragging the economy to its worst performance in more than a year. The Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold this month as inflation at twice the 2 percent target led to a four-way split among officials. Recent surveys suggest the contraction may have been a temporary setback, with services resuming growth in January and manufacturing strengthening." Of course, with no additional money printing (for now) it may well have been permanent. We will need to wait until spring showers are blamed for another 1% or so drop. And it wasn't even half an hour later that the entire London Stock Exchange crashed. "Investors were left in limbo as the London Stock Exchange halted trading due to a technical glitch, dealing an embarrassing blow to its new systems. The LSE, which launched its new trading system last week, suspended dealings before the opening bell on Friday morning in the latest in a string of technical problems." Snow was not blamed: "It blamed issues with the market data technology and said it was investigating the problem." So once again, just like in the case of the Italian market a week ago, the second there is the potential for massive market volatility following disappointing data, a market wide "circuit breaker" comes in preventing anyone from selling. Truly an effective solution to retain asset price stability.

Ouch!