
经济学家们数周来持续发出通胀预警,如今这一判断已然成真。
周二公布的通胀数据显示,汽油价格同比上涨28.4%,环比涨幅达5.4%。燃料油价格同比上涨54.3%。毕马威(KPMG)首席经济学家黛安·斯旺克(Diane Swonk)表示,与俄乌冲突引发的能源危机不同,本轮危机“早已不只是一场单纯的能源危机”。
“这是供应链中断,这一点至关重要——其影响才刚刚开始显现。”斯旺克告诉《财富》杂志。
她补充道,食品价格正加速上涨——4月食品杂货价格上涨0.7%——这意味着柴油(农业机械和运输船舶的关键燃料)短缺的冲击正几乎完全按照预期的时间表开始向下游传导。
“柴油影响经济的方方面面,直接推高运输成本。而这些行业的利润本就微薄,”她说道,“我们此前预计伊朗战争的溢出效应将在四到六周内显现。4月的数据恰好印证了这一点。”
斯旺克指出,电脑和电子产品价格也在上涨,但背后另有原因:人工智能建设热潮引发内存芯片短缺。她表示,随着氦气等原材料供应链进一步收紧,这一情况“只会恶化”。她称,拐点将在“今年晚些时候”到来。与此同时,电费单月上涨2.1%,这正是人工智能数据中心的用电成本转嫁给消费者的体现。
“这正在加剧各州和地方层面日益高涨的反对数据中心建设的呼声,”斯旺克补充道,“这一议题尤其将出现在11月的中期选举投票中。”
这份通胀报告发布数周后,凯文·沃什将接任美联储主席一职,届时他将肩负起美联储的“双重使命”:实现充分就业,并将通胀率控制在2%以下。斯旺克直言,她并不羡慕这个交接时刻。
“我不希望任何央行官员接手这样的烂摊子。” 她说,“眼下没有任何轻松的解决方案。”
问题在于,劳动力市场的纸面数据看似向好,但大多数美国民众,尤其是年轻人,实际感受截然不同。若美联储试图通过加息遏制通胀,恐将冲击本就脆弱的劳动力市场;若选择降息或维持利率不变,为劳动力市场留出复苏空间,又可能引发更持久的高通胀螺旋。
“在民众生活负担能力持续恶化的当下接任美联储主席,注定会陷入无解困局。”斯旺克表示。
消费者物价指数报告显现走弱迹象。新车价格下跌0.2%,医疗保健商品价格下降0.4%。二手车价格在连续数月下跌后趋于平稳。斯旺克将部分商品价格走软归因于“需求破坏”,即当价格长期处于高位时,消费者会转向其他选择。
“这还涉及不平等问题,因为高收入群体比低收入家庭更能承受并消化这些价格冲击,但大量服务成本最终会转嫁给低收入家庭。”斯旺克表示。
Zacks Investment Management首席市场策略师布莱恩·穆尔贝里(Brian Mulberry)对此表示认同。他指出,二手车和医疗保健价格走软是消费者削减可自由支配支出“非常早期”的信号。若这一趋势在整个夏季延续,将释放“利空信号,表明利率不会像市场预期的那样下调”。
其他预测人士则稍显乐观。牛津经济研究院首席美国经济学家伯纳德·亚罗斯(Bernard Yaros)写道,关税影响和能源成本转嫁“在核心通胀指标中显而易见,但也存在大量干扰因素”,并维持其对美联储今年全年将维持利率不变的预测。
市场长期对伊朗战事反应平淡,在周二通胀数据公布后小幅回落。10年期美国国债收益率在数据公布后突破4.43%。
对斯旺克而言,结论再简单不过。
“这一数字糟糕透顶。”她表示,“对消费者而言,通胀无异于累退性税收。”(财富中文网)
译者:中慧言-王芳
经济学家们数周来持续发出通胀预警,如今这一判断已然成真。
周二公布的通胀数据显示,汽油价格同比上涨28.4%,环比涨幅达5.4%。燃料油价格同比上涨54.3%。毕马威(KPMG)首席经济学家黛安·斯旺克(Diane Swonk)表示,与俄乌冲突引发的能源危机不同,本轮危机“早已不只是一场单纯的能源危机”。
“这是供应链中断,这一点至关重要——其影响才刚刚开始显现。”斯旺克告诉《财富》杂志。
她补充道,食品价格正加速上涨——4月食品杂货价格上涨0.7%——这意味着柴油(农业机械和运输船舶的关键燃料)短缺的冲击正几乎完全按照预期的时间表开始向下游传导。
“柴油影响经济的方方面面,直接推高运输成本。而这些行业的利润本就微薄,”她说道,“我们此前预计伊朗战争的溢出效应将在四到六周内显现。4月的数据恰好印证了这一点。”
斯旺克指出,电脑和电子产品价格也在上涨,但背后另有原因:人工智能建设热潮引发内存芯片短缺。她表示,随着氦气等原材料供应链进一步收紧,这一情况“只会恶化”。她称,拐点将在“今年晚些时候”到来。与此同时,电费单月上涨2.1%,这正是人工智能数据中心的用电成本转嫁给消费者的体现。
“这正在加剧各州和地方层面日益高涨的反对数据中心建设的呼声,”斯旺克补充道,“这一议题尤其将出现在11月的中期选举投票中。”
这份通胀报告发布数周后,凯文·沃什将接任美联储主席一职,届时他将肩负起美联储的“双重使命”:实现充分就业,并将通胀率控制在2%以下。斯旺克直言,她并不羡慕这个交接时刻。
“我不希望任何央行官员接手这样的烂摊子。” 她说,“眼下没有任何轻松的解决方案。”
问题在于,劳动力市场的纸面数据看似向好,但大多数美国民众,尤其是年轻人,实际感受截然不同。若美联储试图通过加息遏制通胀,恐将冲击本就脆弱的劳动力市场;若选择降息或维持利率不变,为劳动力市场留出复苏空间,又可能引发更持久的高通胀螺旋。
“在民众生活负担能力持续恶化的当下接任美联储主席,注定会陷入无解困局。”斯旺克表示。
消费者物价指数报告显现走弱迹象。新车价格下跌0.2%,医疗保健商品价格下降0.4%。二手车价格在连续数月下跌后趋于平稳。斯旺克将部分商品价格走软归因于“需求破坏”,即当价格长期处于高位时,消费者会转向其他选择。
“这还涉及不平等问题,因为高收入群体比低收入家庭更能承受并消化这些价格冲击,但大量服务成本最终会转嫁给低收入家庭。”斯旺克表示。
Zacks Investment Management首席市场策略师布莱恩·穆尔贝里(Brian Mulberry)对此表示认同。他指出,二手车和医疗保健价格走软是消费者削减可自由支配支出“非常早期”的信号。若这一趋势在整个夏季延续,将释放“利空信号,表明利率不会像市场预期的那样下调”。
其他预测人士则稍显乐观。牛津经济研究院首席美国经济学家伯纳德·亚罗斯(Bernard Yaros)写道,关税影响和能源成本转嫁“在核心通胀指标中显而易见,但也存在大量干扰因素”,并维持其对美联储今年全年将维持利率不变的预测。
市场长期对伊朗战事反应平淡,在周二通胀数据公布后小幅回落。10年期美国国债收益率在数据公布后突破4.43%。
对斯旺克而言,结论再简单不过。
“这一数字糟糕透顶。”她表示,“对消费者而言,通胀无异于累退性税收。”(财富中文网)
译者:中慧言-王芳
Economists have been calling it for weeks, and now it’s finally here.
Still, gasoline is up 28.4% over the year, Tuesday’s inflation data showed, and 5.4% just on the month. Fuel oil is up 54.3% year-over-year. And unlike the Russia-Ukraine-driven energy crisis, this is “more than just an energy crisis,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG.
“It is a supply chain disruption, and that’s important—and you’re only beginning to see the effects,” Swonk told Fortune.
She added that accelerating food prices—grocery prices climbed 0.7% in April—mean the shortage of diesel, a critical fuel for agricultural equipment and shipping vessels, is beginning to pass through almost exactly on schedule.
“Diesel hits everything. It hits shipping costs. There are very low margins,” she said. “We knew the spillover effects from the war in Iran would hit within four to six weeks. And there you got it, in April.”
Computers and electronics are climbing too, Swonk noted, but for a separate reason: memory chip shortages tied to the AI buildout, which she said will “only worsen” as supply chains tighten for inputs like helium. The tipping point comes “later this year,” she said. Meanwhile, the electricity number—up 2.1% in a single month—is the AI data center load showing up on consumer bills.
“It’s intensifying the backlash that we’re seeing growing towards data center construction at the state and local level,” Swonk added. “In particular, it’ll be on the ballot in November.”
The print arrives weeks before Kevin Warsh is set to take over as Fed chair, where the “dual mandate” of full employment and keeping inflation below 2% will be incumbent on him. Swonk did not envy the handoff.
“It’s not something I wish on anyone in central banking,” she said. “There are no easy options.”
The trouble is that the labor market looks better on paper than it feels to most Americans, particularly the youngest ones. If the Fed tries to hike rates to stave off inflation, it risks damaging an already vulnerable labor market. If it cuts rates or stays on pause to give the labor market room to strengthen, it risks stoking a more persistent bout of higher prices.
“That is a no-win situation for someone coming in at the helm of the Federal Reserve in a year where affordability is already getting worse instead of better,” Swonk said.
There were some softer points in the CPI report. The cost of new vehicles fell 0.2%, and medical care commodities dropped 0.4%. Used cars were flat after months of declines. Swonk attributed some of the goods softness to demand destruction—when prices stay too high for too long and people shift away.
“It gets to the inequality problem too, because affluent buyers can support and absorb those shocks much more than low-income households—but many of those services seep into what low-income households have to pay,” Swonk said.
Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, agreed, pointing to the soft used-car and medical-care prints as “very early” signs of consumers pulling back on discretionary spending — a pattern that, if it holds through the summer, would be “a bearish signal that rates will not move lower as the market had expected.”
Other forecasters were somewhat more sanguine. Oxford Economics lead US economist Bernard Yaros wrote that tariff effects and energy passthrough were “evident in the core measure, but there was also significant noise,” and kept his call for the Fed to remain on pause through year-end.
Markets, having long ignored the Iran war, dipped a little on Tuesday after the report. The 10-year Treasury yield moved past 4.43% on the print.
For Swonk, the bottom line was simpler.
“It’s a miserable number,” she said. “There’s just no other more regressive tax on consumers than inflation.”