Sunday, March 9, 2014

Two Things That Worry Wrong-Way Siegel

March 4, 2014
Siegel: I’m a bull, but these two things worry me

1. ...rising commodity prices "would be a concern for me," Siegel said.

The following two charts do not worry him. The first shows what industrial commodity prices were doing in the 1920s. The second shows what industrial commodity prices have been doing recently.


Click to enlarge.


Click to enlarge.

I'm not suggesting that commodity prices are currently falling. I'm simply saying that they are near the peak we saw in the Great Recession, have struggled to move higher, and could fall from here. Up is not the only direction possible.

2. That might sound like good news, but it would mean that if companies need to hire additional workers, then they need to raises wages.

The following chart shows the annual growth in the aggregate weekly hours of private production and nonsupervisory employees.


Click to enlarge.

The next chart shows the annual growth in the average weekly hourly earnings of private production and nonsupervisory employees (not adjusted for inflation).


Click to enlarge.

See Also:
Wrong Way Siegel Strikes Again v.2

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #1
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #2
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #3
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #4

4 comments:

mab said...

When the "Wizard of Wall St." says to zig, I zag!

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

Lipstick on the zig!

mab said...

If you zag because Siegel says so, you'll be a zag-holder!


Stagflationary Mark said...

Hahaha!

You'll also be a Zagnut!

(It's that candy bar that Beetlejuice used to attract flies.)