[Weekend Roundup] The Infuriating Disconnect Between Stats and Reality

We cut through the B.S.

August 17, 2024 More Articles  |  Free Reports  |  Premium Services Saturday Round Up [Weekend Roundup] The Infuriating Disconnect Between Stats and Reality Fellow Navigator. Charles beat me to my soap-box session I’d planned for today. He wrote to you yesterday about the recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers and the markets’ reaction to them. I’m still climbing onto that soap-box anyway. I’m angry. I’m frustrated. And I’m guessing many, many other Americans are as well. So inflation cooled in July. Good. But, while investors were ecstatic to hear the news because we’ll now get a rate cut for sure… the rest of us are still paying painfully more for things than ever before. In 2020, a pound of steak cost $7.67. In July, it cost $10.85. That’s a 41% increase in the last four years. A Hulu subscription will soon be $18.99 a month. It was just $8 a month in 2020. That’s 137.37% more expensive! Electricity… In 2020, it cost 13.15 cents per kilowatt-hour. In July, it cost 16.43 cents. That’s a 24.9% increase. Gas… It was $1.98 per gallon four years ago. In July, it was $3.60 per gallon. That’s an 81% increase! Big Macs cost 21% more. The price for a dozen eggs has more than doubled (up 104%). Even Top Ramen noodles – for goodness sake – cost 56% more than they did at the beginning of 2020. Yet we should all be doing a happy dance that inflation cooled in July. Why, then, am I not celebrating? Because next month, prices will be even higher. Meaning there’ll be even less money in Americans’ pockets. After all, even though inflation has cooled, there’s still inflation. Because, generally speaking, wages aren’t increasing at the same rate. If the stats can be trusted, wages have increased 22.7% since 2020 while consumer prices have increased 21%, according to a Bankrate analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. If any of those numbers were true, on paper it looks like consumers are earning slightly more than inflation. It’s this kind of B.S. that makes me see red. The average American is suffering. Aging Americans relying on Social Security are suffering even more. This is yet another reminder of the value of being a member of The Freeport Society. This community is focused on cutting through the B.S.… looking behind the statistics and lies. It’s where we consider reality rather than wishful thinking… and where we seek to find investment opportunities that truly help us protect and grow our wealth despite the chaos. Here’s how we did that this week in The Freeport Navigator… The Value of "Alternatives" in This Age of Chaos August 12, 2024 In John Pangere's piece from Monday, he walks us through the process of collecting and trading sports cards, and how to spot their value. It's actually not much different than trading stocks. Read more about it here.. SPONSORED Follow the AI Money: Where Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg's Trillions Are Headed Now In what Time magazine is calling "a winner-takes-all battle" in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg...  Elon Musk…  and Sam Altman of OpenAI are all racing to be the first to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). With more than $7 trillion potentially being funneled toward this goal, a world where AI surpasses human intelligence could become a reality within 24 months, according to Musk. The time to prepare your portfolio is NOW, not later. Learn how to do that here… Did Japan Just Hand Donald Trump the Win? August 14, 2024 We know Japan's money moves shook up the financial scene across the world, but it might even impact who our next president will be. Michael Gayed explains how and what that would mean for the country. Continue reading here. SPONSORED Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and 48 Members of Congress Are Buying ONE Sector… Why are Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, "The Walmart Family", Bill Gates, and 48 members of Congress shifting their stocks in a frenzy? And why are they all piling into ONE unique corner of the market… This corner of the market is NOT artificial intelligence… crypto… gold… energy… bonds… dividends… options strategies… or any other familiar sector or strategy.  Instead… It's a sector that the U.S. Government spends 6-TIMES more on than it does our own ENTIRE military defense budget. It's a sector that is expected to grow another $10 trillion… And save an estimated 14 million lives per year, in the process. The last time we saw the world's wealthiest investors move their cash into this corner of the market… Stocks exploded 2,020%...   5,609%...   Even as high as 8,437% in just ONE year.  Now, it's all happening again. Click here for the details.   Premature Celebrations: How the Next President Will Reignite Inflation August 16, 2024 Despite popular headlines amid the latest CPI numbers, inflation is still alive and well. The rate did indeed drop, but Americans aren't seeing it reflected in prices. Plus, there's a lot more going on. Charles gets to the bottom of it in Friday's article. Looking Ahead Inflation is far from being “under control,” despite what “they” are trying to make you believe. Next week, we’ll see how this economic turbulence is really impacting people. On Thursday, we’ll get the existing home sales numbers for July, followed by new home sales data on Friday. Unlike those CPI figures that seem disconnected from our daily lives, these housing stats hit closer to home – literally. They’ll show us how folks are navigating big financial decisions in the unpredictable market. Can people afford to buy a house while juggling rising costs in every other aspect of their lives? I’d say that’s a tall order. We’ll see what the data says. And it will likely anger us even more. We’ll also see what Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic has to say in his prepared comments on Tuesday. Bostic has been one of the more cautious members of the Fed’s governing body, commenting a few months ago that he wasn’t in a “mad dash hurry” to lower rates. You might say he’s been a wet blanket on the rate-cut party. I’d argue he’s one of the saner voices in the room (by Fed standards), arguing that cutting rates too soon risks igniting inflation again and starting a new round of “FOMO” mentality in the market. Will Bostic rain on the rate-cut parade? We’ll find out soon enough. The futures markets are pricing in a literal 100% probability that the Fed cuts rates next month… and a 23.5% chance that they do a jumbo cut of 0.5%. If we get signals this week that future cuts are going to be slower or fewer than Wall Street expects, we might see a lot of disappointed traders… and a lot more market volatility. Stay tuned. To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth, Teresa B. Senior Managing Editor, The Freeport Society

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