Oct 15, 2015

England has already fallen officially in to deflation territory, the USA is on the verge. According to Jeff Cox writing for CNBC.com, the math is pretty simple: A lack of purchasing power for consumers has led to a lack of pricing power for companies. At a time when policymakers are hoping to generate the kind of mild inflation that would indicate strong growth, the reality is that DE-flation is looming as the larger threat. Declining prices often would be treated as a net positive by consumers, but when it gets prolonged and wages keep falling, income weakness is now affecting corporate and small business profits. How will it affect markets?

Though jobs have been added and have lowered the "U-2" unemployment rate, CNBC reports that most of the jobs are service related and not high paying. Restaurant workers, whose ranks have swelled by 376,000 over the past year (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), saw real pay declines of 8.9 percent for cooks, 7.7 percent for food preparers and 4.8 percent for waiters and waitresses. Steve and Sinclair review data from the U.S. Treasury, economists at Citi, and analysts at B of A Merrill Lynch. In the Q & A segment, Fox News Contributor and Money Radio talk show host Gary Kaltbaum joins the A-Team.