The payroll number was about double the market expectations. Unemployment ticked down. Wages were hotter. The payroll revision from June was higher.
The Fed has threatened, since March, that they were coming after employment, as a means to contain wage pressures – to narrow the job openings to unemployed gap, and therefore damage employee and job seeker negotiating leverage on wages.
Raising the Fed Funds rate 250 basis points, still more than 600 basis points below the rate of inflation, hasn’t delivered on the Fed’s threat.
It’s an inflation problem, by design. Thus, the Fed has bluffed on its appetite to fight inflation. And, thus Congress’s response to forty-year high inflation: another massive fiscal spending package.
It’s inflation by design, to inflate away unsustainable sovereign debt (globally). It’s a devaluation of money, which comes with a lower quality of life.
Kan bli vanskelige tider, også for norske husholdninger fremover.
Det betyr gode muligheter for den som tar smarte valg.