Ah, I’m already seeing the media try to spin the news as a negative. I mean, I’m not jumping for joy because it could be better. But still…it’s better than the alternative.
I’ll give you the good and bad.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge showed that the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) rose in April by 2.1% compared to an increase of 2.3% in March.
The core index, which does not include food and energy, increased 2.5% compared to 2.6% in March.
Current personal income grew. HOWEVER! The growth “primarily reflected increases in government social benefits to persons and in compensation.”
That’s…not good at all. Gross.
The PCE is for consumer spending. It measures “the spending on goods and services by people of the United States” and “accounts for about two-thirds of domestic spending and is a significant driver of gross domestic product (GDP).”
For some reason (or perhaps due to the orange mandate), the media portrayed the consumer outlook as a downer, but changes in monthly consumer spending increased by $47.8 billion.
Granted, the items we regularly buy decreased in the month:
Do not get excited about all of it, though. I see people on the right using it as proof that tariffs haven’t affected anything.
I also won’t use the report to attack tariffs because we simply do not know yet.
The tariffs are still new so I expect we will see the affects starting next month.
The overall trend is better but we still have a long way to go.
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