Schaftlein Report | Is the Economy as Strong as it appears?

1) Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index is up 5.4% - Jerry discusses if will be lasting or Transitory as Fed officials lead us to believe 2) The Fed announced a reduction in bond buying of $15B per month starting this month and concluding around May 2022 *They have been buying $120B of bonds and mortgages a month - Why not taper further and just stop while the economy appears to be running hot? *60% of Investors say the Fed should stop buying bonds 3) Interest rates remain low (10 year at 1.5%) despite having added 500K jobs last month - The initial projected rate hike is in July 2022 Why are rates so low if the economy is Really growing strong - or is this just an increased demand coming our of the pandemic? 4) The unemployment rate is around 4.75% - We still have 8.0M+ job openings - The labor force participation rate is stubbornly around 61% 5) Will the average price of gas go above $4 per gallon? Pipeline closure effects? Biden Administration fails to lift regulatory rules on oil and gas, fails to lift drilling moratoriums, high gas taxes --> An anti fossil fuel agenda 6) How do we get out of the supply chain disruption issue? 7) The stock market is at record highs - Real estate prices are through the roof