<story><title>U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first quarter</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-economy-gdp-growth-q1-11651108351</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taylodl</author><text>The fact the Fed is even contemplating a rate hike tells me they&amp;#x27;re misreading what&amp;#x27;s going on. The inflation we&amp;#x27;re seeing isn&amp;#x27;t a result of a hot economy needing to be kept in check, it&amp;#x27;s the fact that 40% of China&amp;#x27;s production is on lockdown and just about every product made, regardless of where it&amp;#x27;s made, is relying on part(s) coming from China. Supply is constrained and therefore prices are rising. Likewise, supply is constrained and that&amp;#x27;s impacting industrial output - hence a shrinking economy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bitcurious</author><text>In my neck of the woods, by far the largest and most impactful inflation has been in the housing sector - 50% price inflation over the past two years. This is entirely attributable to the Fed&amp;#x27;s pumping of soft assets like stocks, leading to a bunch of paper millionaires cashing out.</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. economy shrank at a 1.4% annual rate in the first quarter</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-economy-gdp-growth-q1-11651108351</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taylodl</author><text>The fact the Fed is even contemplating a rate hike tells me they&amp;#x27;re misreading what&amp;#x27;s going on. The inflation we&amp;#x27;re seeing isn&amp;#x27;t a result of a hot economy needing to be kept in check, it&amp;#x27;s the fact that 40% of China&amp;#x27;s production is on lockdown and just about every product made, regardless of where it&amp;#x27;s made, is relying on part(s) coming from China. Supply is constrained and therefore prices are rising. Likewise, supply is constrained and that&amp;#x27;s impacting industrial output - hence a shrinking economy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adam_arthur</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a combination. But if you look at the actual data as it relates to consumer consumption, pretty clear the primary driver was demand driven.&lt;p&gt;The port backlogs that started in 2021 were due to excess consumption triggered by stimulus&lt;p&gt;Retail sales chart:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fred.stlouisfed.org&amp;#x2F;series&amp;#x2F;RSXFS&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fred.stlouisfed.org&amp;#x2F;series&amp;#x2F;RSXFS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tell me you don&amp;#x27;t see a problem here ^ ?</text></comment>