By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler - • Print | Email
The European Central Bank (ECB) is loath to admit it, but it has no control over the Eurozone inflation rate.
According to official data released this morning (Monday), Eurozone inflation in August was unchanged at 0.2%.
That's far below the 2% inflation rate target sought by the ECB. And it shows just how ineffective the central bank's unprecedented monetary stimulus program has been.
Here's what the ECB will do next...
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If Mark Twain were alive today, he'd probably say that there are "lies, damned lies, and inflation statistics."
There just aren't many more important numbers that so many depend on and that are so regularly and maliciously manipulated.
You see, wages, pensions, and Social Security are all dependent in some measure on the Consumer Price Index. It affects the income of some 80 million Americans through contracts or indexation.
Unless you have this investment on your side...
By Greg Madison, Managing Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email
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Inflation can be tough to contend with, yet investors should guard against inflation lest it eat away at their portfolios – which isn't hard to do if they know the best investments to hold when inflation rates rise.
Official interest rates are notoriously unreliable – outright false at times – which can downplay or underestimate the situation. Don't trust the numbers. Make that mistake, and your investments' value can evaporate before your eyes.
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By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler - • Print | Email
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When you pump massive amounts of money into an economy, as the U.S. Federal Reserve has done with QE1 through QE3, you're supposed to get some measure of inflation.
And yet despite some $2.3 trillion of quantitative easing since 2008, the core inflation rate has actually fallen over the past year from about 2.25% to 1.7% as of May.
It defies both common sense and monetary theory – or at least until you find out where all that QE3 money ended up.
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