The employment news last Friday was better than expected.
Unemployment had dropped to 4.6% and new jobs added were over 500,000.
That came with news that Pfizer has a methodology to fight COVID-19 with a pill treatment that indicates an almost 90% efficacy.
You take that with Regeneron having an infusion methodology for those seriously ill that is effective and many proclaim that we finally may be at the end for the pandemic.
We see that foreign visitors with proof of vaccination and a positive test can now enter the U.S.
I am not advocating that we relax, but that is what in fact is happening.
Any measure of late as to the economy can only be described as positive.
We are not back to pre-pandemic but we are getting there quickly.
That is some of the problem, as all this is driving demand when we have supply issues.
It seems reasonable that supply chain issues will be resolved. It does not mean though that inflation is transitory as some would lead you to believe.
If, for no other reason, look at the energy sector. Be grateful you live in the U.S. where we have abundant supplies of natural gas for now.
In the UK, natural gas goes for $25 an MCF as compared to $5 in the U.S.
The price in the U.S, however, has risen over $1 per MCF in less than six months. Your heating bill this winter will increase.
A further problem is that there are predictions for a colder than normal winter.
Currently, you are seeing the rise in energy prices every time you fill up at the gas station. I am always intrigued as to what level prices have to rise to get consumers to cut back.
In economics this is called price elasticity.
While it may be bothersome for those with good incomes, rising prices hits home with low incomes.
It becomes a choice between eating and other essentials of life.
Inflation is a terrible real tax on people.
Speaking of taxes, it appears that Elon Musk will sell 10% of his state in his $200 billion dollar company.
Some would like to believe that it is the result of a Twitter poll, but the truth is that he has to sell to pay taxes on the options that have vested.
I wonder what it must feel like to be paying $10 billion in taxes and possibly giving another $5 billion to charity.
To show you the wonders of the stock market, Jeff Bezos lost half his wealth through divorce and made that back and more.
Is this a great country or what?
As we move closer to the end of the year, we continue to set record highs in the various indexes and averages.
Crypto currencies are at record valuations as is real estate.
If this does not remind you of the market in 2000 you weren’t paying attention.
