Labor

A long, long time ago, back in 2008 when most of today's hedge fund analysts were still stressing over what to wear to prom, a man named Bernard Madoff was arrested for bilking unsuspecting investors out of $65 billion.  Madoff ran what is traditionally referred to as a ponzi scheme in which new investments were solicited as a means to fund massive redemptions that otherwise would have resulted in a collapse of his fund long before the FBI finally caught up with his scheme. 

But, Madoff was eventually caught and in 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his scheme. 

With 'soft' data broadly tumbling to catch down to 'hard' data's demise, today's Philly Fed exuberance stands out like badly-adjusted sore thumb. Beating expectations by 6 standard deviations (38.8 vs 18.5 exp),

the breakdown shows employment dropped, new orders dropped, prices paid dropped, but shipments surged.

Looking at the full breakdown of the Philly sentiment print, most of the component and especially future indicators fell. For example, the 6m outlook fell to 34.8 from 45.4 previously...

Carmakers quickly kowtowed to Trump after his upset victory over Hilary Clinton on Nov. 8, allowing the then-president-elect to take credit for their pledges to hire thousands of workers and keep U.S. factories open. 

Authored by Ted Bauman via BanyanHill.com,

How do I despise thee, O Congress? Let me count the ways.

Don’t take my word for it: 75% of Americans disapprove of the job our representatives are doing. It’s things like this that explain why:

Whilst only about 13% of U.S. employees nationwide enjoy a retirement fund that assures stable, lifelong income, all 535 members of Congress do … courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Following disappointing CPI prints for two months in a row, even such stalwart believers in the Fed's tightening cycle as Goldman Sachs (recall Hatzius warned recently that the Fed may need to "shock" markets to tighten monetary conditions in light of the S&P relentless grind higher despite rising rates) are suggesting that the Fed's rate hike trajectory for the rest of 2017 is suddenly in question.