** 09-Nov-2021 World View: PPI vs CPI
As we wait breathlessly for Wednesday morning's release of the latest
CPI, and Vince wonders breathlessly whether it will match the recent
sharp increases in the PPI, I just became aware the fact that Chinese
economists are noticing that the PPI and CPI seem to be rapidly
diverging.
Here's an article on the subject, which seems to blame the larger gap
on the price of pork:
-- Larger gap between CPI, PPI expected in Sept
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202110/1 ... 6e5ff.html
(China Daily, Beijing, 12-Oct-2021)
So I wanted to do a little more research on this subject, and it seems
that the CPI and PPI were pretty well correlated last century, but
have been diverging in this century in many countries.
Here's a length paper on the subject:
-- The Wedge Of The Century: Understanding A Divergence Between Cpi
And Ppi Inflation Measures
https://www.nber.org/system/files/worki ... w24319.pdf
(NBER, 5/2019)
This paper is 63 pages of idiotic econobabble. This guy has
absolutely no idea why the gap is increasing. He blames it on digital
technology and lengthening supply chains, but he makes no more sense
than if he blamed it on the price of pork.
These economists come up with laborious Rube Goldberg explanations for
things, when it's obvious that what changed in this century is that
the world entered a generational Crisis era.
I've been writing about inflation for almost 20 years, and this
divergence between CPI and PPI is very interesting. In the days to
come, I'll try to write an analysis of why the CPI and PPI are
correlated in Awakening and Unraveling eras, but become uncorrelated
during a Crisis era.
In the meantime, we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.