CPI-U prints negative

I haven't posted in a while, because, frankly, who wants to keep hearing that the sky is falling?! But... CPI-U, the Fed's official urban price-inflation indicator, just printed out at minus 10 basis points (-0.10%).

The Fed's inflation metrics are geared to understate inflation (there has been a move to replace the current system with a simple median price change, but it hasn't gotten much traction) -- I don't know if this could lead to overstating deflation or not. Given the fact that the changes are multipliers rather than subtractions, my assumption is their measurements will understate deflation too, but I can't say that with any certainty at all.

A scary pair of charts

I won't insult the intelligence of the three people who read my posts by belaboring the obvious, but suffice to say that the I'm every bit as worried as before, and even more so (not just over these charts, but over the continuing lack of contrary indicators anywhere -- I WANT to be cheered up and shown that I shouldn't be terrified of our economic position, and it just ain't happening).

Employment Hopeful?

Unfortunately, there's not really any such thing as momentum in markets (which is why momentum-traders need their stops), but this is hopeful:

Cheerfulness

I've decided that this is Happy Week. Normally I fight my inclination to rave about economic things that are out of my control anyway, and despite the fact that there's a lot of macro to worry about, the fact is that the barrel's already headed over the falls, so we might was well whistle on the way down.

So instead of the normal gloom, I present the following: Rejected newborn red panda adopted by cat. So there.

Federal Californication

Yes, I know I'm a fanatic with the economy that should probably lighten up, but where the "recovery" is concerned, folks should beware of the fact that most of the "recovery" happening in the Obama administration is California-esque stealing from the future, and not a true recovery.