Why Didn’t the Fed “Just Say No”? – Ep. 149

* So far it's been a pretty light week but what little economic data that has been released is bad, and all of it evidences the recession that nobody wants to acknowledge * Let's start with the Consumer Credit numbers that came out on Monday.  Not only was the number extremely weak, but the revisions to the prior month were even weaker * The initial report for the growth in consumer credit in December was $21.3 billion * Now I don't think growth in consumer credit is good; I think it undermines long-term living standards * The last thing you want to do is borrow money to consume, one of the points I really hammered home in my book, "How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes" * If you haven't bought that book, you should get a copy * Be sure to pick the collector's edition because, in addition to being a really beautiful book, it has two entirely new chapters.  If you already have the original one, buy the collector's edition and give the original away to a friend. * Consumers should not borrow to consume.  They should save to consume. * Businesses should use our savings to invest in capital equipment to grow the economy * When you consume savings, you undermine long-term economic growth and therefore future consumption is diminished * The problem is we're living in a bubble, and in order to sustain this bubble economy, consumers have to keep spending * In this economy, however in order to keep spending they have to keep borrowing because they're certainly not earning, and they don't have any savings *  This has to blow up eventually but right now, it's all about keeping the music going * Consumer credit was revised down from the originally reported $21.3 billion to just $6.4 billion of growth * They were looking for January to grow by $16.5 billion, and of course, this also includes student loans, as well as credit cards * Instead, we got an increase of just $10.5 billion * Consumer credit growth imploded in December and January * If there's all this job creation why aren't these newly-employed people spending money? * This shows you the jobs are going to people who already have part-time jobs, and need to supplement hours and wages * Also, we got the Small Business Optimism Index, which last month was 93.9, and there was an expectation that it would increase to 94.2, that small businesses would be a little more optimistic, yet it dropped a full point to 92.9 - the lowest level in 2 years * If that is the case, why are they hiring people? * The type of hiring that is going on is hiring part time workers to replace full-time workers * Which brings me to the data that came out today: Wholesale Trade * Inventories were expected to drop, but they increased by .3% * And the inventory for December was revised from -.1 to unchanged * The reason inventories spiked is because sales collapsed * The inventory to sales ratio just hit a new high, at 1.35 * This is a 7-year high. The last time the inventory to sales ratio was this high was in April of 2009.  We were still knee-deep in the Great Recession * If this recovery even exists, why isn't the merchandise being bought? * At some point this year, the lone remaining bright spot in this horrible economic landscape - the number of jobs being created - will turn down * We got more disappointing corporate earnings news this week * The reason the stock market is moving slightly up is because of the sentiment that the Fed will not raise rates in the near future * It's not just the stock market - Oil is above $38/barrel * Also some of the industrial metals have had huge spikes * And of course, the dollar is going down against other currencies * The Australian dollar hit an 8- month high Our Sponsors:* Check out Fast Growing Trees and use my code GOLD for a great deal: https://www.fast-growing-trees.com* Check out Plaud AI and use my code GOLD for a great deal: https://plaud.ai* Check out Quince and use my code quince.com/gold for a great deal: https://www.quince.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code GOLD20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy