🚨Trump GOES SILENT after NUMBERS HIT…

Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary. Scott Bessant have gone utterly silent. after the horrific economic news this. morning. It was reported that the PPI. inflation index unexpectedly rose to. 6.3%. above expectations of 5.3%. PPI often referred to as wholesaler. inflation. The PPI is producer price. index is often an indicator as well of. where the CPI the consumer price index.

is going because if the producer. inflation is going up that's going to be. passed down to consumers and the CPI. right now is at 3.7%. It is possible in the next 60 days CPI. can have a four handle or over 4%. inflation and it's possible that the PPI. can be over 7% or even heading to 8%. We. have to keep an eye on that. What is. Donald Trump doing right now? What is.

Bessant doing right now? Especially as. we're seeing data like this real wages. are shrinking year overyear for the. sixth month in a row. The Iran war. brought an end to three years of real. wage growth and now inflation is. swallowing any of the increases in wages. right now. By far this is crippling the. United States right now and most people. So what's the Treasury Department doing? What's Besson doing? They're posting. things like this operation economic.

outcast of Iran. They're posting under. Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury's. Fininsson News issued an alert asking. financial institutions to report. potential Iranian regime abuse of. religious charity networks, including. diversion of religious tites and kums. The Iranian regime has been known to. abuse ostensibly religious organizations. in Iran and neighboring countries to.

enrich its elites, fund the repression. of the Iranian people, and support. terrorism abroad. It's a if you see. something, say something alert. That's. your economic outcast operation. while. you're trying to do more deals with. Russia and China who are the main allies. of Iran, while you're empowering them, while you're doing diesel deals with. Russia. And then you have Besson posting. things like this, not addressing the.

horrific inflation numbers. This is what. Besson's posting. Weird guy. This is. what he's posting. The noose is. tightening. First off, what reference. the noose? What are you talking about? The noose is tightening around Iran's. economy, and not even Iran's so-called. allies can save it. The department, the. so-called allies are Russia and China, who Donald Trump is out praising every. damn day. The Department of Treasury. will not relent until the Iranian. regime's coffers are empty, and every.

remaining financial lifeline sustaining. its war machine has been severed. You. talk a tough game, Bessant, but then you. send out these alerts. They're mocking. you in Iran. MB Galabaf, Iran's. parliament leader, writes, "Let's play. the percentages, not in odds, but in the. percent increases." This was after. Besson said, "I am the house. I am the. casino. Bet against me, if you will, because the house always wins." And when.

Besson keeps on losing, reporters asked. him, "So, did you like that reference. that you're the house?" It's like the. house plays the percentages. So MB. Galabaf is mocking him and goes, "Okay, you want to talk about percentages right. here. By the way, they have nothing in. two weeks. The wells were going to. explode in 3 days. Economic D-Day. It's. all past times relative," he goes. And. then you take a look over here and it's. all of the headlines about the. percentages impacting consumers in the.

United States who are suffering right. now. I mean, just look at this. Fuel and. oil inflation up 74.2%. Gasoline inflation up 34.2%. Airline fairs inflation 22.4%. And what are they doing right now at the. Treasury Department? You have the US. Treasurer Brandon Beach saying that. Americans must buy rolls of Trump $1. coins and then go to liberal coffee. shops and then own the libs. That's what.

they're that's what the Treasury. Department is with all of this going on. You got to own the libs. You got to buy. the Trump commemorative coin. And then. if you really want to own the libs, you. got to buy their coffee with the Trump. coin and go, "Gotcha, lib." Here, play. this clip. >> This is the Trump dollar coin. It'll be. in the banks next month. And I want to. challenge you to go get a roll of Trump. dollar coins next month. And then I want. you to go to your favorite liberal. coffee shop with your Trump dollar. points, buy a cup of coffee, and watch.

their heads explode. They will not like. it, but I love it. And I love this. present. I love this coin. I want to. bring in Justin Wolfers, the co the. founder of Platypus Economics. Um, co-hosts a lot of shows with me here on. the Midas Touch Network as well. Founder. of Platypus Economics. Subscribe to his. YouTube channel. Search Platypus. Economics. Um, and also he's the chief. economist here at the Midas Touch. Network. Always great to have Justin. Woler aboard. Let's listen to Justin.

Wolfer's analysis of the inflation. reports. Justin, what do you make of it? The newest inflation numbers are in, and. they're hotter than anyone expected. On. Wednesday, there was a report that. showed consumer prices, that's the. prices you and I pay, are up 3.7%. from a year ago. And then Thursday. morning, we got a second dose. New data. that showed that wholesale prices, that's basically the prices that. businesses are paying in order for them.

to make the stuff they make, they jumped. 1.3%. in a single month, which to help you get. calibrated, it's basically double what. anyone had expected. It's the biggest. increase since 2022. as well. You're not going to be. surprised to hear that both of these. reports were led by fueled by, see what. I just did there, fueled by high fuel. prices. So, there's trouble in the. Middle East. It causes trouble in global.

oil markets and that trouble travels. pretty quickly to your back pocket and. that of businesses as well. But that's. not the whole story here. Markets are. rattled and the Fed meets in less than. two weeks and it's going to be the last. Fed meeting before the midterms. This. was the last inflation reading before. the midterms. And meanwhile, this is. happening at a moment that's important. not just for economics but politics. President Trump is at rallies saying we. don't have inflation.

>> Costs are coming way down anyway. We're. very close to winning. I mean, we've I. think we've won the workers. >> Well, what's the truth? How bad is the. inflationary moment? and what does this. mean for your wallet? I'm Justin. Wolfers. I'm a professor of economics. and this is the Midas Touch Network. Let's get into it. Okay, first big thing. I need you to know. We got two inflation. reports in two days. Both of them came. in hot. Um, first of all, the one that. you probably heard a lot about is the. consumer price index. That's our.

standard measure of inflation. It rose. by 0.6% in September. That puts it up. 3.7% over the year. That really is. getting all the headlines. That's higher. than we expected. It's higher than. anyone had hoped for, and it's obviously. higher than the 2% that the Fed targets. Economists like to look at as well at. what we call core inflation. We scrape. out food and energy, not because they're. unimportant, but because they move up. and down for other reasons. That gives a. slightly healthier measure. It says. inflation's run at 2.6% 6% over the past.

year, but it's still been uncomfortable. over the past couple of months. That's. the one you probably know a lot about. The other measure is called the producer. price index. So, just the way to figure. out what it is is you compare consumer. price index. You're a consumer. You're. beauty. That describes changes in your. cost of doing business. The producer. price index is for producers, businesses. What's happened to their. cost of doing business? They buy inputs. They buy a lot of inputs like diesel. that have become a lot more expensive.

And so you can think about the producer. price index as being upstream of the. prices that you and I pay. If the costs. for businesses rise, and we just learned. they're rising very sharply, they. actually rose not just 1.3% on this. month, they rose 6.3%. over the past year. So if the costs at. your local store or the local business. that you frequent, if their costs have. gone up at some point or another, either. something's got to reverse or they're. going to have to jack up their prices. So this is why economists pay a lot of.

attention to the producer price index as. well. Often we skip it because it can. give noisy or misleading signals, but. right now it seems to be screaming loud. enough, hey, pay attention to me. Look, there's something both of these data. releases have in common, which is that. energy is the big headline here. Energy, of course, uh we've seen gasoline prices. absolutely skyrocket. That's what. matters for consumers. Diesel has gone. through the roof. That matters much more. for producers. Even electricity is. getting more expensive as well. You.

don't need to ask me, an economist, what's going on. This is the Iran war. The president who came to power telling. us that on day one he was going to. reduce the cost of living started. needless war in the Middle East. That. needless war in the Middle East is. raised prices for consumers, you and me, and raised price for businesses. And. that has the potential to raise prices. for the rest of us further along. But gasoline and diesel and energy is. not the whole story. The producer price.

index when you exclude food and energy. and also trade that rose.5% on the. month. Look for a month that's a lot. It. rose 5% over the year. Uh you already. see transportation and warehousing. starting to get more expensive up 3.4%. That's energy costs starting to move. down the supply chain. Um so there is. real pain. It's not just you, it's also. businesses. It's not going away and it's. a little bit worse than we had. anticipated or hoped just a month ago.

If you want me to ask for good news. here, uh the good news is they're. definitely not faking the numbers. First. of all, there's no evidence that they. are. And second, if you were going to. fake the numbers, these are not the. numbers you would put out. I do want to say things are a little. worse than we hoped. They're not. horrible. Inflation of 3.7% is not. inflation of 10% which we had back in. the early 80s. So relative to the worst. alarmists, it's not that bad. It is bad. It's just not that bad. Now the flip.

side of course is the president. The. president said, and I quote, >> "But we don't have inflation, and. tariffs don't cause inflation." You know. what they cause? Wealth. >> Sigh. Long pause. He didn't say that. S. the long pause. That's nonsense. It's. bollocks. It's horseshit. It's not true. Tariffs very clearly cause inflation. The New York Fed had a study out a week. and a half ago actually explaining. precisely how much of our inflation is. caused by tariffs. Now, what's. absolutely true is we can't say that all.

of the tariffs that all of the current. inflation is due to tariffs. That's. because a whole chunk of it is due to. the war in Iran. Either way, these are. inflationary shocks, rising prices, making it harder to get by, a shock to. affordability. that is coming out of the White House. And it's not just me. There was a recent. Reuters Ipsos poll that found that 78%. of Americans blame rising prices on. Trump's policies, including tariffs and. the Middle East conflict. 78% of.

Americans passed the exam. That's. absolutely correct. I suspect the other. 22% are ideologues who are not telling. the full truth about what they see. There's something else going on here. Sometimes when we see inflation, prices. rise and wages rise and so the amount. you can afford ends up not really. changing that much. That's not what's. happening right now. Prices are up 3.7%. over the past year. Inflation looks like. if anything it's rising a little faster. Wage growth has been falling month after. month after month now for several years.

Wage growth over the last year is 3%. Here's the thing I want you to remember. Wages have risen 3%. Prices have risen. by more. Prices are rising faster than. wages. the amount that the average. American can afford out of their. paycheck is falling. That's not how it's. meant to be. A growing economy is meant. to make us all richer. Our economy is in. fact growing, but the amount that the. typical American worker can afford is. also falling. And by the way, that wage. growth of 3%. That's the average, which.

includes people who change jobs, and. they're getting some pretty good pay. rises. But the folks who stay in their. current jobs, they're not seeing pay. rises keeping up with the cost of. living. So for that set of folks uh. prices are rising quite dramatically. faster than wages and people feel like. they're falling behind because they are. falling behind. This all feeds into the. other big moment coming up on the. economics calendar which is the Federal. Reserve meets again on October 27th and. 28th. On October 28th it will tell us. whether it's going to raise rates again.

This really matters. It's obviously. coming just before the midterms. There's going to be all sorts of. discussion about this late October. meeting and I do think the Fed's in a. very difficult spot. On the one hand, inflation is higher than we previously. thought. That would suggest you want to. raise rates. On the other hand, I. wouldn't want to be the bloke who was. telling the president, you're doing this. just a couple of days before the. election. I get that a public servant. should do their job in this case is. think about what's right for the. American people. But it is important to.

remember that if the president lashes. out at the Fed and undermines the. credibility of the Fed, that will also. affect all of us. So by jingo, the folks. in the Fed are between a rock and a. which an inflationary rock and a very. very hard place being trying to defend. their long run political independence. But at some level focusing too hard on. that next Fed meeting is missing most of. the action which is you can look forward. to the meeting after that which is in.

December. And right now markets reckon. it's a 92% chance that we will raise. rates by the end of the year. The only. question then is if it occurs before the. election or after. If you care about. politics, you might care a lot about. that. that if what you're doing is. mostly focusing on the state of the US. economy, then the most important message. is rates are going up. They're going up. because of the inflationary surge. Uh. that rate rise probably does make sense. because of that inflationary surge. But. don't be mistaken, higher rates spell a.

lower e spell a weaker economy. One of. the other highlights that's going to. come out of this, the last Fed meeting. in which they raised rates for the first. time under Kevin Walsh, the new Fed. chair appointed by President Trump, whom. President Trump had said he appointed. because he wanted low rates. Well, they. all not only did they raise rates, it. was a unanimous decision. One way to. think about that is that is a signal. It's a signal from the Federal Reserve. to the White House. Hey, there's no.

point pretending that this is about. politics. There's no point pretending. that this is the anti-Trump forces. because this was unanimous. The. governors who were appointed by um. Barack Obama, by Joe Biden, by Trump in. the first term and by Trump in the. second term, all agreed it was time to. raise rates. If that was the signal that. they were trying to send, that they're. independent and they're going to stand. together against political interference. at the Fed, I think it's a great and. brave thing to do. I think getting to.

unanimity this time is going to be a lot. harder. On the merits, it's going to be. quite difficult. Uh yes, it is true that. inflation's a little higher. That ought. to send you to raise rates. On the other. hand, the economy isn't quite looking as. strong as we thought earlier. And so. maybe you wouldn't want to stomp on the. economy at a moment like that. these. latest inflation numbers were actually, you know, betting on what the Fed's. going to do. It's been an absolute. roller coaster. When the latest jobs.

report came in a little bit softer than. people had anticipated, the economy was. growing a little bit less well. All of a. sudden, um, the chances of a rate height. looked to be disappearing very quickly, but then we had, first of all, the. inflation report came in hotter and all. of a sudden the betting started to turn. towards rate hikes being back on the. table. And normally a producer price. index wouldn't get much weight at the. Fed. Um it's just not that accurate or. reliable of an indicator, but this was a. really big moment. It suggests that uh.

pressures further up the supply chain. are being felt and if they continue. through the supply chain, then you and I. are going to continue to see prices. rising for weeks and months to come. Uh. so the case for raising rates just got a. whole lot stronger. The other thing, there's another thing going on amidst. all of this, which is stock market. stocks just had a terrible day. yesterday. You might wonder why we care. Well, because stocks are people betting. money on the future of the American.

economy and they fell quite dramatically. on Wednesday. Now, a lot of that was not. about inflation and not about the Fed, though a fair bit was. There's also real. fears about what's going on with the AI. boom. On this question of is it a boom. or is it a bubble? I'm going to remain. frustratingly agnostic. Look, the truth. is any pundit who reckons they know, the. first question you want to ask them is, "Why aren't they rich?" from having. always bet that it's going to be a. bubble so many times in the past. These. things are just too hard to figure out.

Okay, I want to end with one thing I'm. really worried about, and it's it's. folks sitting around the kitchen table. The cost of living is rising. wages. aren't keeping up. But also, diesel is. used as a really important se source of. heating oil, particularly in the. Northeast. I don't know what the. weather's like where you are right now, but here in Michigan, it's just starting. to get a little bit cold. Folks are. having a look at their heat and they're. thinking, can I afford to turn the heat. on? If yours is a home that is heated by.

heating oil with the Iran wall looking. likely looking still looking incredibly. open-ended therefore oil prices. remaining high therefore heating oil. remaining high this could turn out to be. a very very expensive winter. So as you. look ahead I'd say just make sure you're. paying attention make plans. I want to. make sure that you keep enough cash. around. You can keep your house warm, keep food on the table and look after. yourself. So, a lot to worry about, but also I.

like to always remain optimistic. Um, it's a beautiful world out there. It's a. beautiful day. There are still reasons. to be optimistic, and I want you to. remain optimistic. With that, I'm Justin. Wolfers. You can find me at Platypus. Economics. I'm also the chief economist. here at the Midas Touch Network. You can. check out my YouTube channel, Platypus. Economics. You can look for the Substack. and download the podcast wherever you. get your shows. Before you go, our book.

WTF America is available for pre-order. now. It's the story of how we got here. and how we fight our way back. To. pre-order, scan the QR code or click the. link in the description. Let's do this.