Shifting Interest-Rate Perceptions Boosted the Dollar, Intensifying Risks of the
Day of Reckoning for the U.S. Currency and Financial Markets

May 2018 CPI-U and PPI Annual Inflation Rates Jumped to
Respective 74- and 76-Month Highs of 2.80% and 3.11%

Rising Inflation Reflected Surging Gasoline Prices from Global-Political and
Oil Supply Disruptions, Not from Booming U.S. Economic Activity;
Nonetheless, the FOMC Boosted Interest Rates, Again

Surging, Non-Demand-Driven Inflation, Combined with Fed Tightenings,
Already Are Impairing Real Growth in Consumer and Systemic Liquidity

Inflation-Adjusted Real Average Weekly Earnings Remained Stalled in May,
With Monthly Gains Shy of 0.1%; Quarterly Contractions Held in Place

Higher Oil Prices Boosted Oil-and-Gas Extraction and Exploration, in
U.S. Mining-Sector Production, Although Total Production Declined in May

Manufacturing Took a Heavy Hit, Even Allowing for a Major Supply Disruption,
Still Shy by 6.0% (-6.0%) of Recovering Its Pre-Recession High,
Faltering in a Record 125 Months of Economic Non-Expansion

Real Retail Sales Were Strong in May, Thanks Largely to a
Major Distortion in Inflation-Adjustment Consistency

Consumer Goods Production Fell Sharply,
Contravening “Booming” Retail Sales