Morning Report: Powell discusses homebuilding

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are higher this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down.

Two Fed governors (Bostic and Barkin) pushed back on the need to cut rates to maintain the expansion yesterday. That might have explained the increase in the 10 year yesterday afternoon.

Inflation at the wholesale level rose 0.1% month over month and 2.3% YOY, according to the Producer Price Index. Ex-food and energy, it was flat MOM and up 2.1% YOY. Inflation remains comfortably stuck in a range around 2%.

Jerome Powell mentioned homebuilding in his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony yesterday. He blamed tariffs and labor shortages for the lack of building. That said, the underbuilding phenomenon didn’t just start in the last couple of years – housing starts have been at recessionary levels since 2008, and we have had an acute shortage of housing for at least 7 years. Something else is going on, although immigration restrictions and tariffs certainly don’t help matters. But that isn’t the explanation. When you look at new home sales divided by population, you can see just how much we have underbuilt:

The CFPB has been upping its spending on consumer financial education. Democrats are complaining that it shifts the burden of consumer protection from the financial industry to consumers. That said, the enforcement budget has increased.

Jim Grant argues in the WSJ for a return to the gold standard.

Author: Brent Nyitray

In the physical sciences, knowledge is cumulative. In the financial markets, it is cyclical View all posts by Brent Nyitray