Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / CPI, The Economy, And Energy (Podcast)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
- 0:04Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
- 0:06Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
- 0:11Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
- 0:15Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
- 0:18Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Let's get these uh
- 0:23Speaker 1: some handle, get a handle on these markets, which they
- 0:26Speaker 1: continue to rip. The SMP five up about one point
- 0:29Speaker 1: five percent, NASDAC even stronger, up point one point nine
- 0:33Speaker 1: per cents on the back of that better than expected
- 0:35Speaker 1: inflation data. Let's check in with Vince Signarolla, global macro
- 0:39Speaker 1: strategist with Bloomberg News. Vince, I mean, you know, we
- 0:43Speaker 1: had really good jobs numbers last week. We got better
- 0:46Speaker 1: than expected inflation here. The White House is rightfully so
- 0:50Speaker 1: taking victory lapse here. What do you make of it
- 0:52Speaker 1: and what do you make of the markets response? Well,
- 0:55Speaker 1: I think the market response is somewhat appropriate. We're seeing
- 0:58Speaker 1: a couple of things. We're always been seeing a bit
- 0:59Speaker 1: of risk with seeing energy prices coming off as inflation
- 1:02Speaker 1: balls over. Interesting thing is I'm talking to some traders
- 1:05Speaker 1: this morning. They're a little confused about the treasury market
- 1:08Speaker 1: move is selling in the in the back end. But
- 1:12Speaker 1: what that represents is there's been such a big trade
- 1:15Speaker 1: on inflation being sort of just here for the next
- 1:18Speaker 1: six maybe twelve months, and so there's been a lot
- 1:20Speaker 1: of selling in the front end um buying in the
- 1:22Speaker 1: back end. The traders now reversing that trade, and so
- 1:25Speaker 1: we're seeing some widening, uh narrowing of the inversion in
- 1:29Speaker 1: the two tents. And that's what's driving that I would
- 1:32Speaker 1: like to point out, and you know, I've been beating
- 1:34Speaker 1: this room for a while now about how the FITS
- 1:36Speaker 1: forecasts been terrible and that this is a transient situation
- 1:41Speaker 1: and they're just just rushing into something and not giving
- 1:44Speaker 1: the economy a chance to catch up from the pandemic
- 1:48Speaker 1: confusion of a huge amount of money and keeping weights
- 1:53Speaker 1: basically far too well for too long with a higher
- 1:55Speaker 1: balance sheet. The ft is actually operating. If you look
- 1:58Speaker 1: at this situation eight to this to the Fed being
- 2:02Speaker 1: like a Fortune five hundred company. They're trying to match
- 2:06Speaker 1: quarterly estimates to what the market is expecting and they
- 2:10Speaker 1: keep missing the mark. And for the Fed, it's an
- 2:12Speaker 1: even worst case basis, because they're being held accountable for
- 2:15Speaker 1: monthly numbers, and so we keep hearing from them. Don't
- 2:18Speaker 1: watch monthly numbers. Don't watch monthly numbers. We've got a
- 2:21Speaker 1: high jobs report. What do they do? Oh, we have
- 2:23Speaker 1: to say higher for longer because of higher jobs. They
- 2:26Speaker 1: they're just not incredible. I I honestly just don't know
- 2:29Speaker 1: why people keep trying to trade what the FED says
- 2:32Speaker 1: and losing money by by that. For for example, when
- 2:36Speaker 1: it's it's insane. I mean, there are academics who've never
- 2:39Speaker 1: said the word done but bence. So you don't expect
- 2:43Speaker 1: the FED to stick to a vulcal like um rate
- 2:47Speaker 1: rise regime. You think at some point this Fed is
- 2:51Speaker 1: going to turn around and start cutting rates. I don't
- 2:54Speaker 1: know that they're going to cut rates per se, because
- 2:56Speaker 1: we still have inflation a long long way away from
- 3:00Speaker 1: where they want to see it, so there's no real
- 3:02Speaker 1: reason to cut rates. But they really need to stop
- 3:05Speaker 1: and give the monetary policy a chance to work its
- 3:07Speaker 1: way through the system. Monetary policy. But we're only at
- 3:10Speaker 1: two and a half percent, like that's still still nothing,
- 3:14Speaker 1: of course, But why is everybody in such a hurry
- 3:16Speaker 1: to get rates to five percent. Monetary policy doesn't react
- 3:19Speaker 1: on a daily basis. I saw a tweet from someone
- 3:22Speaker 1: today who said, oh, my cup of coffee went down
- 3:25Speaker 1: for me. I mean prices to come I mean to
- 3:29Speaker 1: expect prices to come down. Paul checks the gas prices
- 3:32Speaker 1: every single day, plus he checks regular and we all
- 3:36Speaker 1: know that he tanks premium. So yeah, like see that's
- 3:39Speaker 1: I feel sorry for those out there on the premium scale.
- 3:41Speaker 1: But but but but so so that we've heard a
- 3:43Speaker 1: lot of FED speakers talk about the importance of front loading.
- 3:47Speaker 1: I don't personally know what it is why they want to,
- 3:50Speaker 1: but because they think that inflation is going to go
- 3:54Speaker 1: to and stay there, they could not be more dead along.
- 3:58Speaker 1: And I'll tell you exactly why and why this isn't
- 4:01Speaker 1: the seventies. And if I hear at one boy thought,
- 4:02Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw a textbook at so much. If you
- 4:05Speaker 1: have wage games that are not above capital letters above
- 4:10Speaker 1: the inflation rate, you cannot have sustaining inflation. The consumer
- 4:14Speaker 1: will pull back. They have absolutely no choice. I can't
- 4:18Speaker 1: spend what you don't have. Savings of creator disposable income
- 4:22Speaker 1: is creator wages are to keep your place with inflation revolving.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Credit is the highest that's been in two thousand eight,
- 4:28Speaker 1: and that's credit card. That where does the Fed think
- 4:32Speaker 1: this money is coming from. It's certainly ain't coming to
- 4:34Speaker 1: my next pay hike from Bloomberg. Well, I mean, well,
- 4:38Speaker 1: yesterday we watched the President sign a bill that's going
- 4:41Speaker 1: to give fifty two billion dollars in subsidies to chip makers.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Those are private companies, you know, owned by shareholders, not
- 4:49Speaker 1: government companies. Um, so he's gonna give them the biggest
- 4:52Speaker 1: subsidy boost we've ever seen the federal government hand out.
- 4:56Speaker 1: That's one place the money can come from. Two things
- 4:58Speaker 1: about that build Number One, they've got more chips than
- 5:01Speaker 1: they know what to do with right now because they
- 5:03Speaker 1: frontloaded lovely phrase. They're buying from Taiwan because they thought
- 5:08Speaker 1: there was going to be this indefinite shortage. The US
- 5:11Speaker 1: companies in the chip industry are are are They still
- 5:14Speaker 1: get their chips from Taiwan and then they reperp them
- 5:17Speaker 1: through their customers there, so their end units users are
- 5:20Speaker 1: still paying hot crisis. The subsidies are going to be
- 5:23Speaker 1: a future situation, which will of course help curb inflation
- 5:26Speaker 1: because that will bring prices down. The other part of
- 5:29Speaker 1: that bill, which I love, which was the e V makers.
- 5:33Speaker 1: Auto analysts are basically saying, hardly any cars are going
- 5:37Speaker 1: to meet the standards as the government has put in
- 5:39Speaker 1: that bill to meet the credit. Well, I don't I
- 5:42Speaker 1: don't know, Vince. I mean, they're extending a credit or
- 5:46Speaker 1: giving a broader credit to automakers or two to consumers
- 5:50Speaker 1: rather um to buy e vs that are already sold
- 5:54Speaker 1: out with a two year waiting list. So they're just
- 5:57Speaker 1: pumping so much money into this system. A lot of
- 6:00Speaker 1: people would argue for no reason, and that's what causes inflation.
- 6:05Speaker 1: There's a very there's a very good reason. We have
- 6:07Speaker 1: mid term elections coming up to November. That's the only
- 6:09Speaker 1: reason for this bill. And it's the only reason why
- 6:11Speaker 1: all those credits don't show up until because if they
- 6:15Speaker 1: showed up now and no one could buy those cars
- 6:17Speaker 1: because they can't either find them or the credit doesn't
- 6:19Speaker 1: apply to them, it wouldn't do it. Damn things. So
- 6:22Speaker 1: the whole thing was the whole thing is ridiculous, by
- 6:24Speaker 1: the way, by the way, you want to hear ridiculous,
- 6:27Speaker 1: They're gonna so extend the credit. It's a seventy five
- 6:30Speaker 1: hundred dollar federal credit for electric vehicles like the Ford Lightning.
- 6:36Speaker 1: Paul and I are big fans of the Ford Lightning.
- 6:38Speaker 1: It's an awesome car. It's a hundred thousand dollar truck,
- 6:41Speaker 1: and Ford just raised the price of it by eight
- 6:43Speaker 1: thousand five d There you go. I saw that yesterday
- 6:47Speaker 1: exactly so. But you're gonna who's who's that? Who's that
- 6:52Speaker 1: subsidy for? You know what? The most interesting thing that
- 6:55Speaker 1: absolutely no one is talking about. It was a few
- 6:57Speaker 1: days ago the New York said, did their consumer expectation surfeit?
- 7:01Speaker 1: Do you know of which income group sees the inflation
- 7:04Speaker 1: moderating the most? Those people who make less than fifty dollars,
- 7:08Speaker 1: The people most impacted by inflation, who live paycheck to paycheck,
- 7:13Speaker 1: expect prices to come down. And why because they're beginning
- 7:16Speaker 1: to see it. They wouldn't expect it otherwise. So where
- 7:19Speaker 1: is this inflation coming from? You get fed smester saying
- 7:22Speaker 1: it's not affecting me. Well, thank you very much. Nice
- 7:24Speaker 1: to be in the one person where you can afford
- 7:29Speaker 1: she said. She said, I know prices are going up,
- 7:31Speaker 1: and it doesn't bother me because I have enough money.
- 7:33Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I'll tell you a truth. When I
- 7:35Speaker 1: was trading at US Bank, we replaced the global effex
- 7:39Speaker 1: manager with a lawyer who knew nothing about effects and rates.
- 7:43Speaker 1: My cousin was training at City Bank to five. I
- 7:45Speaker 1: told him what was going on. He said, best you
- 7:47Speaker 1: start looking for a job because anyone who's never said
- 7:51Speaker 1: the word done is not somebody you want to work
- 7:53Speaker 1: for in a risk market. So we are trying to
- 7:56Speaker 1: follow a fet We're the only person who's ever had
- 7:58Speaker 1: a real job is Powell. And they keep telling us
- 8:01Speaker 1: what's going to happen to the weights and efex and
- 8:03Speaker 1: they've never thought a trade in their looks? Why does
- 8:05Speaker 1: that make me feel good about these people? Why? Why
- 8:08Speaker 1: are they credible to anybody? So just ten ten seconds?
- 8:12Speaker 1: What context do you say done as a trader? Done
- 8:15Speaker 1: as a trader as you actually do a trade. Somebody
- 8:17Speaker 1: says that you make me a price, you do the
- 8:19Speaker 1: deal and say done. You know about that? That's traders
- 8:23Speaker 1: speak there, This is what we Why's why we have
- 8:25Speaker 1: you on. Vince shot out of a Ken and Vince Cignarella.
- 8:29Speaker 1: He does all the strategy stuff. He's traded rates, he's
- 8:32Speaker 1: traded FX. God knows what else he's traded, probably, you know,
- 8:35Speaker 1: standing in the pitch trading crude oil for all we know.
- 8:38Speaker 1: But he's a bloomberg at News. He talks to traders
- 8:41Speaker 1: all the time, and we'd love to get his call
- 8:44Speaker 1: on these markets, particularly when you got a big, big
- 8:46Speaker 1: move like we do today. It's bringing Lindsay Piegsa. She
- 8:53Speaker 1: is the chief economist for stephle Lindsay, you know, I'm
- 8:57Speaker 1: not an economist, thank goodness, um, but I do know
- 9:01Speaker 1: a good labor market. Last week, I do see the
- 9:03Speaker 1: print here on inflation. Today things look pretty good. How
- 9:08Speaker 1: do you put it all together? Well, I think from
- 9:11Speaker 1: the standpoint of the labor market. Last friday's job stumpers showed,
- 9:14Speaker 1: as the Fed has described, the labor market still solid growth,
- 9:18Speaker 1: keeping the FEDS eye on the inflation ball at this point,
- 9:22Speaker 1: while we could argue that the recessionary boxes have been
- 9:25Speaker 1: checked for the consumer, for manufacturing, for housing, the labor
- 9:30Speaker 1: market has really been that silver lining. But from an
- 9:33Speaker 1: inflationary standpoint, this morning's number was a little bit mixed.
- 9:37Speaker 1: It did give the more dubbish a lean as we
- 9:41Speaker 1: look at some of those numbers. Now the reprieve was
- 9:43Speaker 1: very minimal, and for the average American households at lower
- 9:46Speaker 1: gas prices, while welcomed, does not offset the painfully high
- 9:51Speaker 1: costs on nearly every other component of their monthly expenditures.
- 9:54Speaker 1: But still it was a step in the right direction.
- 9:57Speaker 1: So looking at investors bets, we do see that being
- 10:00Speaker 1: towards a smaller fifty basis point increase as opposed to
- 10:02Speaker 1: seventy five next month. But why but if you're the Fed, um,
- 10:07Speaker 1: wouldn't you want to just stay on course regardless of this?
- 10:10Speaker 1: You know, one data point does not a trend make
- 10:13Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, So this this is the problem. The market
- 10:17Speaker 1: is anxious to call a peak in inflation. The market
- 10:20Speaker 1: is anxious for the Fed to signal there almost done
- 10:22Speaker 1: fighting inflation, they're going to start to decelerate. But the
- 10:26Speaker 1: Fed has been very clear that they're keeping their eye
- 10:29Speaker 1: on the ball. They're going to continue to raise rates
- 10:32Speaker 1: until they're convinced by several consecutive reports that inflation is
- 10:36Speaker 1: on a meaningful and sustainable downward trend back towards that
- 10:41Speaker 1: two inflation targets. So right now the market is questioning
- 10:45Speaker 1: the Fed's resolved to remain resilient the FED says it will.
- 10:49Speaker 1: Whichever blinks first is going to determine the directional momentum
- 10:53Speaker 1: of raps from By the way, lindsay, I also am
- 10:55Speaker 1: anxious to have seen the peak in inflation, and I'm
- 11:00Speaker 1: anxious to see the FED slow down its rate hikes.
- 11:04Speaker 1: But um, does it really Is it really a bad
- 11:08Speaker 1: thing for the economy if the Fed keeps raking rate
- 11:11Speaker 1: hiking rates so long as inflation continues to come down
- 11:14Speaker 1: and we have these you know, five thousand job editions, Well,
- 11:18Speaker 1: I suppose it depends if you want to take your
- 11:20Speaker 1: medicine now or if you want to kick that down
- 11:22Speaker 1: the road. If the FED decides to take a more
- 11:24Speaker 1: benign policy pathway and doesn't root out the inflation dragon,
- 11:29Speaker 1: then we may run into the scenario of still elevated prices,
- 11:32Speaker 1: but now we have much more a much more prolonged
- 11:36Speaker 1: period of very minimal growth, or the conditions lining up
- 11:40Speaker 1: for stagflation. If, however, the FED is willing to push
- 11:43Speaker 1: us into maybe a temporarily deeper recessionary position but get
- 11:49Speaker 1: inflation under control, then we can talk about a more
- 11:52Speaker 1: robust recovery. On the flip side, lindsay, I'm trying to
- 11:55Speaker 1: make the case to my boss is that they should
- 11:57Speaker 1: send me out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Um, tell us
- 12:01Speaker 1: what happens in Jackson Hall, Wyoming in the month of
- 12:03Speaker 1: August every year, and should we pay attention? Well, Traditionally
- 12:08Speaker 1: the FED has used the Jackson Hole meeting to give
- 12:12Speaker 1: an increased assessment or an updated assessment of where policy
- 12:15Speaker 1: makers are in terms of the longer term view for
- 12:18Speaker 1: the policy pathway. But this time around it's unlikely to
- 12:22Speaker 1: warrant much attention, as we've already heard from the Chairman
- 12:26Speaker 1: that decisions on policy are not being made on a
- 12:29Speaker 1: longer term, a longer term assessment of the economy, but
- 12:34Speaker 1: they're being made meeting to meeting. So just like the
- 12:37Speaker 1: market is overreacting arguably to one data point, so too
- 12:41Speaker 1: is the FED basing next month's decision on the incoming data,
- 12:45Speaker 1: the latest incoming data. Alright, So what are your expectations, lindsay,
- 12:50Speaker 1: for the US economy? Um, do we see in inflation
- 12:55Speaker 1: cooling back down closer to the two percent level? And
- 12:59Speaker 1: do we have recession? Well, that's that's those are some
- 13:03Speaker 1: big questions there. First off, I do think that growth
- 13:06Speaker 1: remains very minimal, throughout the year, and I do think
- 13:10Speaker 1: that looking backwards, the NBR will eventually acknowledge a recession
- 13:14Speaker 1: started either in the first or the second quarter from
- 13:17Speaker 1: an inflation from unemployment, absolutely, because I think the three
- 13:22Speaker 1: and a half percent unemployment rate is not necessarily capturing
- 13:26Speaker 1: the full, the full sense of what's happening in the
- 13:29Speaker 1: labor market. Remember, the growth that we've seen in job
- 13:32Speaker 1: creation is less about new jobs being created and more
- 13:37Speaker 1: about old jobs being replaced. Remember as of July, that's
- 13:41Speaker 1: when we recaptured the full twenty two million jobs lost
- 13:45Speaker 1: during the Great Recessions. So over the past eighty months,
- 13:48Speaker 1: essentially we've just clawed back to where we were. We're
- 13:51Speaker 1: not talking about new job creation above and beyond the
- 13:54Speaker 1: one's loss. So I do think when we look at
- 13:56Speaker 1: the loss of real income, the decline and manufacturing, the
- 14:00Speaker 1: laws of real spending, top line GDP, and negative territory,
- 14:04Speaker 1: even though the employment numbers are giving us an artificial
- 14:07Speaker 1: sense of solidity, I think that we are in processionary condition.
- 14:12Speaker 1: I don't know my my third of my fourth children
- 14:14Speaker 1: actually got a real, real job as they call it.
- 14:17Speaker 1: So to me, that is a wicked strong labor market
- 14:20Speaker 1: so nz PA, thanks so much for joining US. Chief
- 14:22Speaker 1: econras managing director at Steve giving us her thoughts here.
- 14:27Speaker 1: We love talking to Lindsay a nice perspective to the
- 14:30Speaker 1: market here. We were just talking to Bloomberg's Bevince Signarolla
- 14:36Speaker 1: just earlier this morning and he was making a comment
- 14:38Speaker 1: talking about chips, and he sent along some news here.
- 14:41Speaker 1: Demand for chips is collapsing, just as President Biden signs
- 14:45Speaker 1: a bill to jump start more US chip making, which
- 14:48Speaker 1: is very interesting because we've got some very mixed the
- 14:51Speaker 1: bad numbers coming out of some of these chipmakers over
- 14:53Speaker 1: the last a few days and kind of just kind
- 14:55Speaker 1: of goes to this, you know, strategic importance of having
- 14:58Speaker 1: chip manufacturing in the U. Keith Croc joins us. He's
- 15:02Speaker 1: a fan of Croc Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
- 15:06Speaker 1: University West Lafayette, Indiana. Some really good stuff there. They do.
- 15:10Speaker 1: It produced some smart engineering geeks that perdue, no question
- 15:13Speaker 1: about it. Hey, Cai talked to us about this chip
- 15:16Speaker 1: business because at the beginning of the pandemic, when China
- 15:19Speaker 1: shut down, we all the whole world shut down. We said,
- 15:22Speaker 1: oh boy, we need chips for a lot of stuff,
- 15:25Speaker 1: and we don't really make a lot of chips here.
- 15:27Speaker 1: So the talk really ramped up of you know, kind
- 15:30Speaker 1: of on shoring some chip manufacturing capability. And I think
- 15:34Speaker 1: that's what the Chips Act UH does. How should we
- 15:37Speaker 1: think about that? Well, I'll tell you what fellas I'm
- 15:41Speaker 1: here in Washington, d C. I was invited yesterday by
- 15:45Speaker 1: the White House UH for the for the signing. It
- 15:49Speaker 1: was a great deal for America, for national security, for
- 15:53Speaker 1: global economic security, and long term prosperity. You know, when
- 15:57Speaker 1: you talk about UH these quarterly results for the chip makers,
- 16:01Speaker 1: I would not be worried about that at all, because
- 16:04Speaker 1: this chip business is growing so fast. You know, a
- 16:08Speaker 1: slowdown from that means in on the average, it goes
- 16:11Speaker 1: from growth down to growth. We're under the capacity now,
- 16:17Speaker 1: you know. Let me tell you why, UH, this is
- 16:20Speaker 1: such an important bipartisan you know, two utter an eighty
- 16:24Speaker 1: billion dollar bill. First of all, it's about securing the
- 16:29Speaker 1: semiconductor supply chain that is critical for national security. The
- 16:34Speaker 1: second is this investment, which now is going to result
- 16:38Speaker 1: in a three fifty billion dollars UH in the in
- 16:42Speaker 1: in chip manufacturing in the United States and to help
- 16:48Speaker 1: US maintain that lead as well as a two billion
- 16:50Speaker 1: dollar investment UH with direct funds in R and D.
- 16:55Speaker 1: And what that's gonna drive is jobs, jobs, jobs, and
- 16:58Speaker 1: not just any kind of jobs, highly skilled jobs. And
- 17:03Speaker 1: I think I think you fellas understand that. You know,
- 17:07Speaker 1: our adversaries pay an a four dimensional game of diplomatic, economic, military,
- 17:14Speaker 1: and cultural chess. That's john and they're playing well. And
- 17:17Speaker 1: they they're doing it the same way we are. Right
- 17:19Speaker 1: they had this centrally controlled economy. They're just passing out
- 17:23Speaker 1: money to companies and deciding who are winners and losers.
- 17:27Speaker 1: I don't understand this. I don't get why. And you
- 17:30Speaker 1: got your mba Harvard, so you probably know better than
- 17:32Speaker 1: I do. Know. He recently got a pH d and
- 17:35Speaker 1: some engineering stuff. So why on the economic side, why
- 17:38Speaker 1: don't we let the market, the free market decide, or
- 17:41Speaker 1: if it's such a national security issue, why don't we
- 17:43Speaker 1: take over this industry? Like why are we halfway here
- 17:46Speaker 1: between like um state controlled socialism and free market capitalism?
- 17:51Speaker 1: What are we doing Keith? These companies already make a
- 17:54Speaker 1: lot of money, These shareholders have already gotten very rich.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Why are we giving them, you know, billions tens and
- 17:59Speaker 1: ten of billions of dollars in government subsidies. Right, I'll
- 18:05Speaker 1: tell you exactly why. So my last role was under
- 18:09Speaker 1: Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.
- 18:13Speaker 1: Before that, I ran three public companies. I've been in
- 18:17Speaker 1: Silicon Valley most of my of my career. And here's
- 18:21Speaker 1: was happen. We invented the semi conductor business. Here's what happened. Countries,
- 18:27Speaker 1: particularly Asian countries, realized how strategic it is, and they
- 18:31Speaker 1: subsidized the semiconductors. So they literally pulled it off our shores.
- 18:36Speaker 1: And the investment that goes into these manufacturing facilities is humongous.
- 18:42Speaker 1: We did the largest onshore in history when I was
- 18:45Speaker 1: under Secretary of State, twelve billion dollars for one of
- 18:50Speaker 1: the most sophisticated chip plants ever. And by the way,
- 18:54Speaker 1: that has fifteen hundred workers on the production plot and
- 18:59Speaker 1: sit super said of them are either master's degrees or PhDs.
- 19:04Speaker 1: And we lost that talent alright, So give us a
- 19:08Speaker 1: sense of just how strategic you think ensuring some of
- 19:12Speaker 1: this capability is. Because again it became acutely aware even
- 19:16Speaker 1: to lay people like myself that uh, you know when
- 19:19Speaker 1: China shuts down, Taiwan shuts down for whatever reason. That's
- 19:24Speaker 1: a problem. Matt Miller can't get his well for other
- 19:27Speaker 1: industries should we be doing exactly It's taking me so
- 19:30Speaker 1: long to get this truck from Chevrolet. I'm very excited.
- 19:34Speaker 1: It's apparently coming up this month and I cannot wait.
- 19:37Speaker 1: It's the z R two UM, which I'm so pumped about.
- 19:39Speaker 1: But you know, if we're doing this for chips, why
- 19:43Speaker 1: aren't we doing it for planes or trains or automobiles. Well,
- 19:50Speaker 1: this is first of all, semiconductors is the most important
- 19:55Speaker 1: industry in the world because it lays the foundation not
- 20:00Speaker 1: only for everything in the tech area, but as you
- 20:04Speaker 1: guys say, in the in the automotive field, in the
- 20:07Speaker 1: energy field, you know, in the aerospace UH field. So
- 20:12Speaker 1: the important thing is to secure uh this supply line.
- 20:18Speaker 1: You guys saw what happened during during the pandemic, so
- 20:22Speaker 1: uh And and the other thing that is is absolutely
- 20:26Speaker 1: killed key is this skill set um you know, UH
- 20:32Speaker 1: we lost We've lost it uh here in the United States,
- 20:36Speaker 1: and now this is gonna bring it back. One other
- 20:40Speaker 1: great thing about this UH Chips and Science Act, it
- 20:45Speaker 1: also is funding UH research in critical national security sectors
- 20:53Speaker 1: like quantum computing, like six G, like biotech, and this
- 20:59Speaker 1: is this is in the area where you know, the
- 21:02Speaker 1: United States used to be number one in R and D.
- 21:04Speaker 1: We were down a number nine. And one last thing
- 21:09Speaker 1: is that when we presented we are when we architected
- 21:12Speaker 1: this bill, we presented the Senator Schumer and Senator Young
- 21:16Speaker 1: and what we showed them is with this level of investment,
- 21:20Speaker 1: you're gonna get it three times uh three, full additional
- 21:25Speaker 1: investment from the private sector. Keith, let me quickly ask you.
- 21:29Speaker 1: We only got thirty seconds here, but what do you
- 21:31Speaker 1: think about the e V credits? Is that subsidy also
- 21:35Speaker 1: important for American jobs and carmakers? Well, I can, I can,
- 21:40Speaker 1: I can tell you what I think being you know,
- 21:42Speaker 1: former CEO Docum signed and the REBA is that these
- 21:46Speaker 1: guys are on the ninety days shot clock, right, and
- 21:50Speaker 1: so to be this enables you to look long term,
- 21:54Speaker 1: and that's key. And by the way, for the for
- 21:57Speaker 1: the e V credits is long is that technology is
- 22:01Speaker 1: developed in the US. Because Shina owns solar panels, so
- 22:05Speaker 1: we've got to do something about that, all right, Keith,
- 22:08Speaker 1: great stuff really appreciate getting your perspective. Keith Croc, founder
- 22:12Speaker 1: of the Croc Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Perdue UH.
- 22:16Speaker 1: He was also the former US Under Secretary of State
- 22:20Speaker 1: for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. Million jobs, million degrees.
- 22:24Speaker 1: The guy used to be a VP at General Motors
- 22:26Speaker 1: as well. I know, I've got to get him back on.
- 22:28Speaker 1: He's done everything you gotta get. We'll get him back on.
- 22:30Speaker 1: We'll get him next time he's in a sign, We'll
- 22:31Speaker 1: get him here in the studio again. Some good economic
- 22:37Speaker 1: data for the past few days. Let's check in with
- 22:39Speaker 1: Jeff Cleveland. He does this for a living. He's a
- 22:41Speaker 1: director in chief economist for Peyton and Regal. Hey, Jeff,
- 22:44Speaker 1: you put today's CPI data together with you know, a
- 22:48Speaker 1: really strong jobs report last week. I don't know what
- 22:52Speaker 1: do you take away from that? Well, you know, it's
- 22:55Speaker 1: interesting the month to month reading on core cp I,
- 23:00Speaker 1: which slowed to point three. It could be just a
- 23:04Speaker 1: fake out. We had a similar slow down back in
- 23:06Speaker 1: the I guess was the March data that we got
- 23:09Speaker 1: in April, so and then we saw core cp I
- 23:13Speaker 1: re accelerate. So for my money, I think it's too
- 23:16Speaker 1: soon to claim victory mission accomplished on on core inflation
- 23:21Speaker 1: could be still moving higher and point three months of
- 23:24Speaker 1: months isn't. Then I don't think that's enough to change
- 23:27Speaker 1: the FEDS view here and then as it regards to
- 23:31Speaker 1: you think the FEDS still gonna go seventy five at
- 23:33Speaker 1: the next meeting. Yeah, we're gonna get another CPI report,
- 23:36Speaker 1: We're gonna get another jobs report. So as of now,
- 23:40Speaker 1: we're sticking with the seventy The reason being, I think
- 23:43Speaker 1: you have to put on your central banker hat and
- 23:45Speaker 1: you have to think, Okay, how do they think that
- 23:49Speaker 1: policy effects inflation? And the way they look at it
- 23:52Speaker 1: is that they need to get interest rates up enough
- 23:55Speaker 1: to push up the unemployment rate. That's their goal. Once
- 23:58Speaker 1: the unemployment rate starts a rise, then wage pressure comes off,
- 24:02Speaker 1: and then inflation core inflation slows. We haven't had that
- 24:05Speaker 1: happen yet. We had a really strong jobs report, the
- 24:07Speaker 1: unemployment rate moved to cycle low. So if you're a
- 24:10Speaker 1: central banker, you I think you're still keeping your your
- 24:14Speaker 1: foot on the break in terms of monetary policy, not
- 24:18Speaker 1: slowing down it and definitely not on a a welcome
- 24:21Speaker 1: But it could just be one month of soft CPI data.
- 24:24Speaker 1: Isn't it enough if they just keep wage increases below
- 24:30Speaker 1: the level of inflation? Or do they really have to
- 24:32Speaker 1: do we really have to see jobs losses? Well, I
- 24:36Speaker 1: think they're gonna be really unhappy with five and a
- 24:38Speaker 1: half percent UH average hourly earnings, frauductivity at zero or
- 24:44Speaker 1: even falling. UM that situation and the implication for unit
- 24:49Speaker 1: labor costs we saw yesterday, I think that's a really
- 24:51Speaker 1: really bad mix. Is going to be very unhappy with that.
- 24:54Speaker 1: So I do I do think they want they don't
- 24:56Speaker 1: want to admit it in public, but they want to
- 24:58Speaker 1: see the unemployment rate right that. They want to see
- 25:01Speaker 1: wage growth slow back down somewhere. Maybe. I think closer
- 25:04Speaker 1: to two to three percent is a good ballpark. Damn.
- 25:07Speaker 1: I want a raise that that's equal to or greater
- 25:12Speaker 1: than headline cp I. Yeah, you didn't get that. You know, well,
- 25:18Speaker 1: I still have the request in and I feel like
- 25:20Speaker 1: American workers are gonna want that too. I'm always sending
- 25:24Speaker 1: that requested. It keeps getting rejected. So I I hear you.
- 25:28Speaker 1: I think that's the that's the that's the correct thinking.
- 25:30Speaker 1: I just, um, I don't know how realistic that is
- 25:33Speaker 1: for me or for you? All right, Jeff, again, I
- 25:35Speaker 1: asked our guests here, should we expect anything from jackson Hole? Uh?
- 25:39Speaker 1: This month? Should I make my book my trip out there? Well?
- 25:43Speaker 1: Sometimes jackson Hole is sort of s O Terek Rite
- 25:45Speaker 1: some fringe kind of topics, maybe not really mainline monetary
- 25:50Speaker 1: policy topics. But I feel like this year, maybe this
- 25:53Speaker 1: year is different. Maybe this year is is surrounding the
- 25:56Speaker 1: question that we're going to talk about here, which is
- 25:59Speaker 1: how much does the unemployment rate need to rise to
- 26:01Speaker 1: get to get inflation back down? Sort of I don't
- 26:04Speaker 1: know bread and butter monetary policy questions, so it might
- 26:07Speaker 1: actually be more more central to markets then maybe it
- 26:11Speaker 1: has been in the last couple of years. So this
- 26:14Speaker 1: FED seems less esoteric. I mean they seem to care
- 26:17Speaker 1: about headline inflation, not just core PC right, um, at
- 26:21Speaker 1: least it seems important to to to Powell, well, headline
- 26:26Speaker 1: is tied to gas prices, and gas prices are tied
- 26:29Speaker 1: to consumer inflation expectations, So that's I think they're right
- 26:33Speaker 1: to care about that. They care about inflation of expectations.
- 26:35Speaker 1: The question for me is still Okay, where is inflation?
- 26:39Speaker 1: Where is the underlying trend of inflation, and I still
- 26:42Speaker 1: think looking at headline month to month does not help
- 26:45Speaker 1: you with that. You gotta look um later this morning,
- 26:48Speaker 1: look at media and CPI from the Sleeveland Fed. Look
- 26:51Speaker 1: at the trim mean, look at the underlying sticky measures,
- 26:54Speaker 1: and you're still seeing pretty strong. I look at gasoline
- 26:58Speaker 1: and that is it. I'm an equity He's gotta keep
- 27:00Speaker 1: it nice and simple and coming down. So that's good stuff.
- 27:03Speaker 1: Jeff Cleveland, Director and chief Economists at paid In in
- 27:07Speaker 1: the Regal joining us right now in our Bloomberg Interactive
- 27:11Speaker 1: Broker studios. Rob Barnett, he's the senior anals. He leads
- 27:14Speaker 1: our energy coverage in Europe. He's based in London, but
- 27:18Speaker 1: we got him here in New York. He's with Bloomberg Intelligence. Uh. Rob,
- 27:22Speaker 1: a story that I think it just fascinates me because
- 27:24Speaker 1: I think it's gonna get really, really bad. So I'd
- 27:26Speaker 1: love to get your perspective. We talk a lot about
- 27:29Speaker 1: global energy and we know that in Europe, primarily due
- 27:32Speaker 1: to the war in Ukraine, Europeans and folks in the UK,
- 27:36Speaker 1: you guys are preparing for a really tough winter. Give
- 27:39Speaker 1: just framed that out for us. Yeah, so for anyone
- 27:42Speaker 1: who's not following the gas market, gas in Europe is
- 27:46Speaker 1: over sixty dollars per mmbtu right now, and where does
- 27:50Speaker 1: it typically trade? Fractions of that? I mean, and the
- 27:54Speaker 1: US is at around eight dollars per mm btu, so
- 27:57Speaker 1: we're eight x where the US is at the moment today.
- 28:00Speaker 1: A this is going to be a very challenging winter. Now,
- 28:04Speaker 1: tariffs are actually regulated by the government, so consumers haven't
- 28:09Speaker 1: really had to mark to market what they're paying yet,
- 28:12Speaker 1: so it's going to be tough as the government's phase
- 28:17Speaker 1: in those higher prices. And yeah, I'm stocking up on sweaters,
- 28:21Speaker 1: just getting ready for colder showers, sweaters, everything that we
- 28:24Speaker 1: can do to Uh, you're in England, right, I mean
- 28:27Speaker 1: you're You're in London, so it's not gonna get that
- 28:29Speaker 1: bad for you. In Berlin, which is basically in Poland,
- 28:32Speaker 1: it's going to be really really cold this winter. And
- 28:35Speaker 1: the Germans, I'm gonna ask you why decided to put
- 28:40Speaker 1: all of their eggs in Vladimir Putin's basket? Why did
- 28:43Speaker 1: angel A miracle Um make her nations so reliant on
- 28:49Speaker 1: this Russian dictator? Well, I think as as many of
- 28:53Speaker 1: you may know, Germany has had a long history with
- 28:56Speaker 1: nuclear power, and they've actually phased most of their nuclear
- 28:59Speaker 1: power plan out at this point. Despite Angela Merkel's history.
- 29:04Speaker 1: She she was a nuclear engineer by training, right, So
- 29:07Speaker 1: it's interesting choice he made. But the decisions all got
- 29:10Speaker 1: made post Fukushima. Everyone got scared about nuclear a little
- 29:15Speaker 1: over a decade ago, and that really drove a lot
- 29:19Speaker 1: of the decision making around the reliance on gas because
- 29:23Speaker 1: Europe's got a very strong green angle, particularly in Germany,
- 29:27Speaker 1: so they wanted to get off coal. They were concerned
- 29:31Speaker 1: about nuclear, and they hitched themselves to gas, and it's
- 29:34Speaker 1: turning around. It's going to bite them hard, even though
- 29:37Speaker 1: you know, the problem in Fukushima was an earthquake, yes,
- 29:41Speaker 1: what do you call that? Giant waves tsunami right, which
- 29:45Speaker 1: is so unlikely from the Bowden's a right, if that's
- 29:48Speaker 1: not going to happen in Germany. And yet they ran
- 29:53Speaker 1: straight to Moscow for all of their energy needs. I
- 29:56Speaker 1: used to talk to Dan Burriette a lot when he
- 29:57Speaker 1: was Energy Secretary, and he would come to Berlin every
- 30:00Speaker 1: time he was there trying to pedal um l en
- 30:02Speaker 1: G terminals because he wanted to sell more US gas
- 30:05Speaker 1: and they turned him away, and and they are trying
- 30:08Speaker 1: to make amends for that. Now. Germany and other parts
- 30:11Speaker 1: of Europe are sprinting to get l en G import
- 30:16Speaker 1: terminals built, but those things take a while. So this
- 30:19Speaker 1: is a multi year process with no easy solutions in
- 30:22Speaker 1: the next twelve to twenty four months, right, and in
- 30:24Speaker 1: which time period we could see the Rhine River completely
- 30:27Speaker 1: dry up. We were told that um the level on
- 30:30Speaker 1: the Rhine could drop to sixteen inches by Friday, making
- 30:34Speaker 1: it virtually impassable for the big coal and diesel barges
- 30:37Speaker 1: that need to normally deliver energy through those roots. What's
- 30:40Speaker 1: gonna happen, Yes, so there's stockpiles for a little bit
- 30:43Speaker 1: of short duration disruption, but if we see this continue,
- 30:48Speaker 1: it's just one more factor that's really putting pressure on
- 30:52Speaker 1: that gas price that we talked about at the beginning here,
- 30:55Speaker 1: and there really aren't easy alternatives in the near term.
- 30:59Speaker 1: So you know, how bad does it get? I mean
- 31:02Speaker 1: the reasonable there there's terminology they're they're talking about. The
- 31:06Speaker 1: reasonable worst case scenario includes mandated power outages and things
- 31:13Speaker 1: like that in many of the economies, So we'll see
- 31:17Speaker 1: cities go dark already seeing that? Are you already seeing that?
- 31:21Speaker 1: In Germany? Oh? Yeah, I mean Berlin was pretty much
- 31:23Speaker 1: dark at night to begin with because they don't have
- 31:25Speaker 1: enough money to pay for power before the surge in prices.
- 31:28Speaker 1: Now they've got the big boom in prices. Plus all
- 31:30Speaker 1: the rivers are drying up, those that are cooling nuclear
- 31:33Speaker 1: plants are are too hot to do, so, I mean
- 31:35Speaker 1: they've just got hit by it like a triple whammy, right,
- 31:38Speaker 1: And we've just taken all of this for granted. I
- 31:40Speaker 1: think in the West, we've just always been able to
- 31:43Speaker 1: flip the switch and assume that the power is going
- 31:46Speaker 1: to work. I think a lot of folks in society
- 31:49Speaker 1: clearly took their eye off the ball. And it's gonna
- 31:52Speaker 1: take a lot of time to figure this out. And
- 31:54Speaker 1: renewables are great. I'm I'm very pro renewable energy. It's
- 31:57Speaker 1: gonna but this stuff is a multidecade kind of solutions,
- 32:01Speaker 1: and they're obviously intermittent. You've got to figure out hydrogen
- 32:04Speaker 1: and battery storage and all of these things that we
- 32:06Speaker 1: know are on the horizon, but none of them are
- 32:08Speaker 1: kind of really here for prime time today. So the
- 32:12Speaker 1: reality is today you've got to have some gas supply solutions,
- 32:16Speaker 1: you've got to have coal in the mix. And you know,
- 32:18Speaker 1: for better or worse, Germany should be doing everything it
- 32:22Speaker 1: can to keep the nukes that they still have remaining running.
- 32:25Speaker 1: They still have the potential to uh, they have some
- 32:28Speaker 1: plants I think three that are running and they have
- 32:31Speaker 1: the possibility of stretching it out. They're supposed to face
- 32:33Speaker 1: them out by the end of the year, and the question, well,
- 32:35Speaker 1: I don't think they can. By the way, Rob, have
- 32:37Speaker 1: you seen there's a Norwegian drama called Occupied, which is
- 32:43Speaker 1: really fantastic. It's about like, the premise is that Norway
- 32:48Speaker 1: decides to stop exporting gas and oil, and so the
- 32:51Speaker 1: EU allows Russia to occupy Norway, which sounds crazy, but
- 32:56Speaker 1: or it did at the time. Now it sounds so
- 32:58Speaker 1: realistic that you politics of energy in Europe are just
- 33:02Speaker 1: absolutely fascinating, and you're right to point out Norway is
- 33:06Speaker 1: so important to the gas equation. One of our analysts
- 33:11Speaker 1: who covers Equinore, he had a focus idea in them
- 33:13Speaker 1: earlier this year because they were really poised to benefit
- 33:17Speaker 1: because of being the number two gas supplier into Europe.
- 33:21Speaker 1: And you've got all these high prices, so some people
- 33:23Speaker 1: are actually printing money because of where we are today,
- 33:25Speaker 1: Larry putin up into all right, Rob, thanks so much
- 33:28Speaker 1: for joining. Rob Barnett senior analysts covering energy out of
- 33:31Speaker 1: our London office. He joins us live here on our
- 33:33Speaker 1: Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio. He's a Bloomberg Intelligence. Thanks for
- 33:38Speaker 1: listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and
- 33:42Speaker 1: listen to interviews of Apple podcasts or whatever podcast platform
- 33:46Speaker 1: you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller.
- 33:51Speaker 1: Pet On Ball Sweeney I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney.
- 33:54Speaker 1: Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at
- 33:56Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio