Feds To Sell Bonds It Bought During The Panic. Jobless Claims Lower Amidst Rise In Consumer Prices

Today the Labor Department released the latest jobless claims data for the previous week. The jobless claims have again fallen to a new low since the pandemonium a year ago, to 376,000 claims – which MarketWatch says is a return to “normal territory.”

The number of claims equates to roughly a little over 3 fully-packed University of Michigan football stadiums.

Since that big drop during the week of April 10, claims have been grinding lower, week by week. Barring a resurgence in virus cases and a reversal of the progress made on reopening and increasing capacity, we doubt that we will see a significant back up in claims any time soon. With more vaccines being distributed every day, this scenario is becoming less and less likely over time.

Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies.

MarketWatch additionally reports today that the cost of living has officially risen yet again of a 5% increase – a 13-year high. Last month saw an increase 0.6%, building off of previously increasing months, as reflected to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Economic experts polled said they expected a 0.5% for this month.

ShadowStats, an alternative economic website, adjusted their inflationary charts based on this new data received from this morning. John Williams of ShadowStats shows that inflation is higher than the official government numbers.

As noted in the MarketWatch report, the Federal Reserve still says that this inflation is not permanent, but only temporary.

Only Helping The Rich

The following report is from the Trends Journal:

The U.S. Federal Reserve soon will begin to sell the almost $14 billion in corporate bonds and exchange-traded funds it bought to prop up the economy during the economic crisis, the central bank has announced.

The sales will be made by the Fed’s Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), an emergency vehicle that bought about $5.1 billion in bonds issued by Visa, Walmart, Whirlpool, and other major U.S. businesses.

The facility also bought $8.56 billion in shares of exchange-traded funds that hold corporate debt.

The sales will be completed by the end of this year, the Fed said, and proceeds will revert to the U.S. Treasury, which funded the facility.

These holdings are separate from the $7.3 trillion the Fed holds in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, which the Fed is still taking on at $120 billion a month to keep interest rates low until the economic recovery gains a more stable footing.

In April, Fed chair Jerome Powell said it is not time yet to even “start thinking about thinking about” ending that aspect of the Fed’s support programs. 

When the Fed established the SMCCF, it also set up a Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (PMCCF). The announcement of the SMCCF bolstered investors’ confidence in corporations’ ability to borrow so much that the PMCCF never had to make a purchase, the Wall Street Journal noted.

At its peak, the SMCCF owned $14.2 billion in assets, a sliver of the $750 billion the two facilities were authorized to spend.

The SMCCF stopped buying assets at the end of last year when then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not renew several Federal emergency lending programs.

“The SMCCF proved vital in restoring market functioning last year, supporting the availability of credit for large employers and bolstering employment” during the shutdown, the Fed said in its announcement of the sale, as quoted by the WSJ.

Now “shock and awe are no longer needed,” Nicholas Elfner, co-chief of research at Breckenridge Capital Advisors, told the Financial Times.

TRENDPOST: We note this article not only to report on the Fed’s latest maneuvers but also to illustrate that capitalism is dead and the entire system is to assist the Bigs and enrich the rich.

Buying shares of exchange-traded funds that hold corporate debt, and buying junk bonds and mortgage-backed securities? When we analyze the hundreds of billions in emergency aid that went to airlines and other businesses at the outbreak of the COVID war, it is evident that America is the Land of the Essentials… essentially, the richest of the richest. 

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

Proverbs 10:15

Losing almost 400K jobs a week is not “normal,” it is abnormal. Yes, jobless claims will continue to fall as more of the country reopens and state benefits from Covid stimulus end, but as explained in other reports, the media propaganda being perpetuated on both political spectrums that the economy is recovering is a total lie. This so-called recovery is purely artificial and has no bearing on reality.

And now we are seeing inflation going up even higher as jobs are paying less, hours are being cut, benefits slashed, and so on. The Fed’s, along with the media reading the script the Fed’s gave them to read, keep saying inflation is “transitory” and temporary. WinePress readers know this is not true.

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Evangelical Financial Advisor Dave Ramsey Says There Is No Market Bubble

U.S. Congress Calls On The Fed To Create Digital Dollar. The EU Is Doing The Same. Jobless Claims And Unemployment Fall

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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