A classic early sign of a commodity cycle.

Mining industry nonfarm payrolls near historical lows.

This happened in early 1970s & 2000s.
Both marked the onset of a commodities bull market.

Labor & capital constraints are the amplifiers of bull market in resource stocks.

👇👇👇
Energy & soft commodities are obviously not mining related.

See below the nonfarm payrolls for oil & gas extraction which is also at historical lows.

To recall:

The green agenda hasn’t even started.
The decline in agricultural workers look even more severe.

To be fair, this is not a domestic problem.
We’re are experiencing similar issues worldwide.
This pandemic has truly magnified a long-term trend of labor reduction and under investments in the commodities space.

Resource companies have been facing a deep recession for some time now with not enough workers willing to enter this industry.
On top of it:

Government policies seem to be discouraging folks from return to the labor market.

People continue to leave the labor force like never before.
The supply shortage problem is much more permanent than most realize.

This upward pressure in consumer prices is probably just getting started.
See a few examples:

“Coke Cola will raise prices to offset higher commodity costs”

cnbc.com/2021/04/19/coc…
“Higher commodity costs lead to price hikes from Kimberly-Clark and other consumer giants”

cnbc.com/2021/03/31/hig…
More broadly:

“Finance chiefs look to price increases to offset higher commodities costs”

wsj.com/articles/finan…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Otavio (Tavi) Costa

Otavio (Tavi) Costa Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TaviCosta

11 Apr
Cathie:

With all due respect, allow me to make some important comments below.



👇👇👇
“Bitcoin could be today’s “gold standard”, increasing purchasing power!”

Let’s put aside the ‘Bitcoin replacing gold’ discussion for a moment...

Your point above may be one of *the most* inflationary I’ve seen in a while.
The whole idea of the gold standard was to:

-Prevent the dilution of fiat currencies
-Keep the monetary system pegged to a hard asset

And, most importantly:

Allow the consumer to maintain its buying power over time.

Is that what’s going on today?
Read 15 tweets
2 Apr
Two diverging schools of macro thoughts are prevalent today.

One calls for a “Roaring 20s” redux while the other believes in a forthcoming liquidity crisis.

Both narratives have valid points and flaws.

We find ourselves right in between the two.

Let me elaborate.

👇👇👇
The central argument of the reflationary thesis is that a pent-up demand from consumers will likely cause explosive growth in the economy similar to the early 1920s.

To be fair, financial conditions for US households have significantly improved.
As shown in the chart below, their net worth is rising at the fastest pace since 1953, which also includes the largest wealth increase by the bottom 50% in history.
Read 36 tweets
28 Feb
The Fed is trapped.

Let’s dive in deeper.

Thread 👇👇👇
The year is just getting started and US fiscal deficits already reached another record.

Now at its worst level in 70 years.

The current fiscal spending path will lead to record Treasury issuance this year.
In March of 2020, lawmakers passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act bill.

Then, an additional $900 billion of stimulus in December.
Read 36 tweets
30 Jan
The largest wealth transfer in history.

Time for a thread 👇👇👇
Today’s mix of monetary and fiscal policies are having a very different economic impact then we saw post the GFC.

Back then, deflationary forces were exacerbated by a brutal wealth loss problem.

Especially the lower classes.

They lost over 84% of their net worth from '07-'11.
This time we are seeing the complete opposite.

Lower classes just increased their wealth at the highest annual amount in the history of the data.
Read 25 tweets
26 Dec 20
The Spanish flu of 1919 serves as a roadmap for the current macro environment.

Thread 👇👇👇
Similar to today, the outbreak of the pandemic severely limited the industrial capacity of the economy and led to a major supply shock in raw materials.

Commodities became rare assets and, despite still muted aggregate demand, inflationary forces started to accelerate again.
To note, the rise of wholesale prices became a global phenomenon.

Grocery stores began hoarding inventories to sell at higher prices, forcing governments to intervene and criminalize these actions to avoid an even larger hit to the consumer.
Read 18 tweets
17 Oct 20
Something is out of place.

There is a massive divergence between retail sales vs. coincident indicators.

If it's all driven by fiscal stimulus....

Why aren’t we seeing a major turn in economic activity? Image
Are strong retail sales due to higher prices rather than volume?

Except for the GFC:

Capacity utilization is well below or at similar levels reached at the worst part of all recessions of the last 53 years.

Aggregate supply remains largely constrained. Image
While it's not a component of this retail sales index, the auto industry would be a great example.

Car makers are extremely behind in annual production due to the pandemic.

12-trailing months production just reached its lowest level in history. Image
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!