Fajasy on X
U.S. inflation is still sticky, and it’s not only the government’s numbers saying so. Inflation shows up in both the government’s price indexes and the price of gold: → Growth × Policy: Core PCE inflation, the PCE price index minus food and energy, rose to 3.1% in September from 3.0% in August, 1.1% above the Fed’s 2% target. CPI inflation rose to 3.7% from 3.4%. I focus on core PCE because the Fed sets its 2% target on the PCE index, and leaving out food and energy, whose prices swing the most, provides a better read on where inflation is headed. → Charles Gave’s Four Quadrants (from Gavekal): At the end of October, an ounce of gold bought 42.5 shares of $IEF (a 7-10 year Treasury ETF) vs. a 7-year average of 26.3. That’s down from 47 at the end of September, since gold fell 6.9% in October while $IEF rose 3.1%. Gave reads gold beating bonds as the currency losing value, and gold has been beating bonds since March 2020. Gave’s framework still places the U.S. in an inflationary boom, where the U.S. has been since November 2023, apart from four weeks in March and April 2026. That’s the quadrant where he favors gold, commodities, real estate, value stocks, emerging markets and cyclicals with high fixed costs, and avoids long-duration bonds. These assets either rise in price with inflation or earn more when the economy runs hot, while long-duration bonds pay a fixed amount that inflation eats away. High Treasury yields don’t change that call, since Gave’s gold/IEF ratio divides the gold price by $IEF’s total return (interest included), and the ratio is still 61% above its 7-year average even after October.
