Another Fed Raise in June?
So you got a raise, did you? Not so fast. For the country as a whole, rising inflation matched rising personal income percent for percent last month at .5%. The fed released their monthly figures this morning showing core inflation at .2% for the month of April. This is higher than the fed likes to see it, but below where it was in March, so we've got that going for us. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in his Thursday letter to congress that he's sure that inflation is contained, but there is another rate adjustment meeting in June, just in case. You can bet that if the inflation figures are not back in the range where the Fed likes to see them (1% - 2% annual) we're in for another nudge up the “Oh Crap! My ARM payment just went up” scale. Don't say you weren't warned. You'd better cut back to only 1 latte a day.
More troubling is that the national personal savings rate experienced it's 11th straight negative month. Why is no one saving? Are you all just living high on the hog and doing your best to make sure Mastercard's IPO will be a rousing success? Well, clearly not everyone is doing so, but personal income is rising at the highest level at almost 2 years, with income from wages rising .9% in April. Hey people, start using that money to retire some of your credit card debt! We'll all be much better off in the future.
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