Mortgage rates have peaked along with inflation
If you want a soft landing, this is the inflation data you want to see, something I talked about last year, even on recession watch.
If you want a soft landing, this is the inflation data you want to see, something I talked about last year, even on recession watch.
In a recent article in The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker shared some thoughts on why many ultrarich people aren’t satisfied with their wealth.
There seem to be two reasons.
While Pinsker’s article is about the ultrarich, I think these tendencies apply to nearly everyone. Even me.
People in the middle class are just as inclined to hop on the hedonic treadmill. They’re just as likely to compare what they have to what their friends have. The same goes for those who aren’t well off. Even people in poverty get sucked into the comparison game.
In fact, I’d argue that for the poor and middle class, there’s an added element. Time and again, statistics show that folks with lower incomes watch tons more TV than people who earn more. (Also here — and many more studies.) When you allow yourself to succumb to the “other world” of film and TV, you’re exposed to more ideas about how people should and do live — even if these ideas are baseless. (It’s like “The Grand Illusion” by Styx: “Don’t be fooled by the radio, the TV, or the magazines. They show you photographs of how your life should be, but they’re just someone else’s fantasy.”)
The rich compare themselves to themselves and others. The poor do too but they also compare themselves to fictional characters on film and television.
The bottom line seems to be that comparing your situation to anyone is likely to lead to trouble. Whether you’re comparing yourself to yourself, your family, your friends, or to people in Hollywood productions, doing so leads to a desire for more.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
When it comes to refurbishing the home, the kitchen almost always gets forgotten or left as an after-thought. That doesn’t have to be the case. Don’t stay with the same décor year in, year out, especially since the kitchen is said to be the most important room of the house. Take a walk on the […]
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For years, people have loved Robinhood for their easy-to-use mobile app and commission fee trades, but the meme-stock scandal left investors feeling disenfranchised. The good news is that several competitors have emerged to give investors more choice. Here are ten of the best Robinhood alternatives to consider if you’re shopping for an online broker like Robinhood.
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Mortgage rates are based primarily on the prices and yields of bonds. Bonds take cues from several places, but always from inflation and the economy–at least to some extent. As such, economic reports (including those focused on inflation) can have an immediate impact on bonds and immediate implications for rates at the moment they’re released. The single most important economic report (as far as rates are concerned) will be released Thursday morning at 8:30am Eastern time. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the first, broad-based look at inflation in the US on any given month. It’s a report that has consistently had a bigger influence on rates than any other scheduled monthly data for roughly a year now. Economists submit forecasts to data aggregators like Reuters and Bloomberg. The median forecast becomes the market’s consensus and traders move bonds into position for those numbers, generally speaking. In other words, it won’t be a surprise to the market if annual inflation comes in lower tomorrow. The headline level (which includes all prices measured) is seen dropping from 7.1% to 6.5% annually. To reiterate, if 6.5% turns out to be the result, there’s no real implication for rates. If, on the other hand, inflation were to fall to 6.3% or lower, rates would likely fall sharply. If we see 6.7% or higher, expect a big rate spike. There are other inflation numbers in the report and, in fact, the market is more likely to focus on the monthly “core” CPI number which factors out more volatile food and energy prices. Other traders will look deeper still and subtract the “shelter” component (which measures the cost of housing) as it can be a big stick in the mud that obscures the underlying trends in prices.
These astrologers are the boys who cried wolf. And we’re correct to not believe them, even when they happen to get one right. They’ve foisted it upon themselves.