WRKO Interview

Still drifting lower:

US Consumer Sentiment at 5-Month Low

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment for the United States came in at 90 in March of 2016 from 91.7 in the previous month and hitting its lowest reading since October 2015, as both future expectations and current conditions deteriorated sharply. Markets were expecting the index to rise to 92.2.

Rail Week Ending 12 March 2016: Rail Returns To Its Slide Into The Abyss

Week 10 of 2016 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) declined according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. All rolling averages are again negative and in decline.

Must be reading my stuff???
;)

Low rates may be causing low inflation, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard theorized in Friday remarks.

Bullard, who is a voting member of this year’s Federal Open Market Committee, suggested in prepared remarks for a policy conference in Frankfurt, Germany that the current period of low interest rates and low inflation could potentially persist for a long period of time. Furthermore, raising rates could conceivably increase inflation, he said.

He didn’t conclude this argument was correct, but suggested it deserved further analysis.

The St. Louis Federal Reserve president also discussed the normal argument for raising rates, saying the FOMC’s policy remains extreme, labor markets are close to normal, and inflation is close to the Fed’s target levels.