Soc Gen's Albert Edwards: Economists Looking At Inflation With Political Bias

A key economic benchmark for the Trump administration established back in the heady days of January as his inauguration was approaching was wage growth, most commonly measured through average hourly earnings. It is such an important barometer that central bankers are known to get twitchy when laborer wages get a boost, fingers at the ready to push the interest rate button higher. Back in January, it might have been a logical assumption that, with Trump coming into office and dreams of infrastructure spending dancing in the heads of economists, average hourly earnings would spike. Depending on the measure one uses to calculate wage inflation, that didn’t happen. This has Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards getting twitchy as he asks...