luni, 6 aprilie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Another Definition of Deflation: Antal Fekete Defines Deflation as a "Pathological Slowing in the Velocity of Money"

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 11:05 PM PDT

In an interview with the Daily Bell that just came my way, Antal Fekete writes about Blowing Up Modern Austrian Economics ... in a Good Way.

Background on Velocity

To understand the interview discussion, one must first understand velocity. I discussed velocity at length in Will Prices Rise Significantly When Velocity of Money Picks Up?

The simple definition V = GDP/M where V is velocity, M is money supply, and GDP is Gross Domestic Product.

Problems With Velocity

  • The first problem is how to measure money supply (Is Money M1, M2, or TMS? Each gives a different measure of velocity). 
  • The second problem with velocity is that GDP is a pretty nebulous concept given that government spending (no matter how useless) adds to GDP. 
  • Finally, I do not believe prices can be accurately measured.

Interview Snips

I post snips of the interview below, followed by my own comments. Sometimes I agree, and sometimes disagree with Fekete.

Daily Bell: Please define deflation and disinflation from both a monetary and price standpoint.

Antal Fekete: Deflation is clearly not the same as a falling price level. Technological improvements in production cause a gently falling price level under sound money that is no deflation. Defining deflation as a contraction of the stock of money is plainly wrong. We have a vastly expanding money supply, yet a lot of economists (including myself) hold that we are in the midst of deflation. I prefer the definition of deflation as a pathological slowing in the velocity of money.

Mish: I agree with Fekete that "price deflation" is a natural occurrence based on technology and productivity improvements. I also concur that deflationary forces are huge.  However, I disagree with his definition of deflation based on velocity. Given the clear and expanding bubbles in asset prices, I believe we are in a state of inflation. Nonetheless, I do expect another round of credit and asset deflation (my definition of deflation).  

Daily Bell: We think monetary deflation over a long period of time is difficult to accomplish in a central bank , money-printing economy. Comments?

Antal Fekete: "Accomplish" is not the word. No one wants deflation any more than wanting a pathological condition in one's own body. "Occur" may be a better word. I disagree with your assumption that central banks' money printing is antithetical to deflation. I am in a minority of one in suggesting that just the opposite is the case: expansion of the money supply through open market purchases of government bonds by the central bank is the direct cause of deflation. I know this is counter-intuitive, yet true nevertheless.

Mish: It's not counter-intuitive at all. The Fed prints more money than consumers and businesses want to borrow, so the money sits as excess reserves. Velocity drops. Fekete's definition states that falling velocity is deflation, so in that sense, the Fed does indeed "cause" deflation. It's simply a truism based on Fekete's definition. That said, he's not a minority of one. By sponsoring asset inflation, the Fed will indeed cause deflation. Our difference is he calls the present environment deflation, whereas I say a very destructive asset deflation will eventually result from current Fed policies.

Daily Bell: Along with Rothbard , as we understand it, asset inflation itself leads to what seems to be deflation and disinflation. Money volume must go up to go down. Truth to this?

Antal Fekete: I would modify language slightly: money velocity must go up first so that it could come down.

Mish: Velocity does not need to do anything. It can go up or down or sideways. Asset inflation to the point of creating bubbles is another thing. The busting of bubbles would be a deflation event in my model and I would expect velocity to drop constituting deflation in Fekete's model as well.

Daily Bell: If third-party credit facilities like American Express collapse, does this constitute monetary deflation?

Antal Fekete: The collapse of any firm is a symptom of deflation, with a vengeance. It activates the 'domino effect'. Deflation breeds more deflation. The velocity of money spirals down.

Mish: His symptom is part of my definition. My definition is part of his symptom. But we are not saying the same thing entirely. I would say it's clear we are in a state of inflation right now even though I believe deflationary forces will soon override that inflation.The reason I see inflation is simple: asset bubbles are expanding, and that is a clear symptom of inflation by any rational measure.

Daily Bell: When central banks keep interest rates low, does this lead to disinflation and deflation? How so?

Antal Fekete: The word "disinflation," which suggests that the Fed can turn the spigot on and off, is not in my dictionary. In fact, the Fed has no such power. It can certainly turn the spigot on, but we have never seen the Fed turning it off. Worse still, it has absolutely no control over how people will be using the extra money spewed from spigots or dropped from helicopters. Well, the smart ones would buy bonds, not commodities as the Fed hoped. They knew they could always dump them on the Fed in the open market with a hefty markup. Risk free. To answer your question, the central bank does not "keep" interest rates low. In fact, it "pushes" them low through open market purchases of government debt, which increases the bond price. The other side of the coin is the simultaneous decrease of the rate of interest. Of course, the purpose of the exercise, on a Quantity Theory argument, is the fomenting of inflation, not deflation. The trouble is that the central bank does not know what it is doing. It sows inflation but reaps deflation. Its monetary policy is counterproductive, to put it politely.

Mish: I disagree with Fekete's notion the Fed wants to push commodity prices higher. I would say the Fed wants businesses to expand, wages to rise, credit to expand, and consumer prices to rise, most likely in that order. Higher commodity prices would be a very distant 5th, at best. However, I do like Fekete's explanation that the Fed does not keep rates low, it pushes them low with asset purchases. And I concur that the Fed has no idea what it is doing. Specifically, the Fed can print money but has no control over how it is spent (or if it is spent at all). Right now money sits as excess reserves and not spent. That is deflation in Fekete's book, but not mine. Fekete ignores asset prices (stocks, junk bonds, housing prices). While bubbles are inflating, we have inflation. In simple terms, expansion of asset bubbles is sufficient proof of inflation. The bursting of asset bubbles would typically lead to deflation, but I look at asset prices and the implied value of credit marked to market to make a determination.

Daily Bell: If central banks are keeping interest rates artificially low, how does this contribute to monetary deflation? What do the bond traders do that makes monetary inflation into a deflationary phenomenon?

Antal Fekete: It is not low interest rates that creates deflation but falling interest rates. The process is triggered by the central bank's open market purchases of bonds in an effort to pursue its inane policy of QE, eliciting the copycat action of bond speculators. A chain reaction is activated: bond purchases of the central bank alternating with bond purchases of the speculators. The central bank announces its time table for its bond buying program. Speculators preempt the central bank in buying first, dumping the bonds into the lap of the central bank while pocketing risk free profits afterwards. The expectation of the central bank, price inflation, does not materialize. It is frustrated by the bond speculators who hijack the freshly printed money on its way to the commodity market. Not to be deterred, the central bank prints more. To do that it has to go to the open market and buy more bonds, prompting speculators to preempt. The cycle now repeats and a vicious spiral is engaged. The upshot is a prolonged fall of interest rates that destroys capital across the board.

Mish: I agree with Fekete's front-running of bonds thesis. To that I would add "realization" that capital was destroyed happens during the bust. It cannot be prevented.

Daily Bell: Do you believe in the Misesian business cycle ? Does it have validity, in your view?

Antal Fekete: Certainly, with some reservations. It does not assign a very high IQ to businessmen in the field. Why don't they learn from experience and factor into their calculations the distortion in the rate of interest due to monetary policy? I improve on the business cycle of Mises, pointing an accusing finger to bond speculation motivated by risk free profits. Businessmen are the brightest people we have. They are being victimized through the insane monetary policy of the Fed.

Mish: Banks take risk-free profits for three reasons: They are capital impaired and cannot lend,  creditworthy businesses do not want to expand, risk-free profits exceed expected profits from risk-taking. As far as victims go, everyone but those with first access to money are victimized by the monetary policies of the Fed.

Daily Bell: Was the Great Depression a deflationary depression? We note that junior mining prices apparently went UP during the Great Depression.

Antal Fekete: Most certainly it was. It is axiomatic that gold mining shares go up during a depression. Depression is just another name for capital destruction, and gold is the only form of capital that is immune to destruction. If you consolidate all balance sheets in a country (including that of the national treasury), then all liquid assets will be wiped out, with the sole exception of gold. Gold is the only asset that is not duplicated as a liability in the balance sheet of someone else.

Mish: Actually, a stockpile of any valuable commodity owned free and clear is an asset with no liability elsewhere. I do not believe it is axiomatic that gold mining shares rise in deflation, but I would expect gold to do well.

Daily Bell: Are we in a deflationary depression? Or are we in a kind of stagflation?

Antal Fekete: We are in a deflation that is metastasizing into a depression. The monster word "stagflation" does not appear in my dictionary.

Mish: Stagflation should have ended Keynesian theory right then and there. Keynes believed it was impossible to have a recession and inflation at the same time. The 1980s is a testament to the absurdity of Keynesian theory.

Daily Bell: Has money volume increased in the US and Europe? Have prices increased in response?

Antal Fekete: As I hinted a while ago, increasing the volume of money does not necessarily cause an increase in the price level. The Quantity Theory of Money is a false theory. In spite of an eightfold increase in the stock of money in America the price of crude oil was cut in half and the price of iron, copper and a number of other metals showed steep declines, thought impossible only a few months ago. If this is not deflation, then let me ask: How much farther do prices have to fall before we are allowed to use the D-word?

Mish: The Quantity Theory of Money says "money supply has a direct, proportional relationship with the price level." Fekete points to falling prices and says "If this is not deflation, then let me ask: How much farther do prices have to fall before we are allowed to use the D-word?" By Fekete's own definition, falling prices do not constitute deflation. I believe he is speaking from the reference of what most economists believe (that falling prices constitutes deflation). Unfortunately, most believe that constitutes deflation. I call it brainwashing by the Fed and academia. Regardless, Fekete also misses the boat on the theory. Prices have gone up, just not commodities. The bubble is in assets (equities, housing, junk bonds), things that are impossible to measure precisely. I call that inflation. Fekete calls it deflation. But we both seem to agree that a big deflationary bust is coming.

Daily Bell: Oil has apparently been manipulated down. Does this constitute price deflation nonetheless, or is it simply a kind of manipulation?

Antal Fekete: The manipulation theory was invented by those who are afraid to face the facts squarely. We should know better: no valorization scheme ever works for any significant length of time for any commodity. It is another matter that foreign policy makers in Washington may have stolen a ride on the back of spontaneously collapsing crude oil to punish Putin.

Mish: I am in perfect agreement on this point. Commodity price declines are about the slowing global economy, not oil price manipulation.

There is more to the interview, and inquiring minds may wish to read further. Let's stop here and look at a few charts of velocity.

M1 Velocity



M2 Velocity



As you can see, velocity depends on how one measures money, and even Austrians do not agree how to do that.

Mish Definition

My definition of inflation is expansion of money supply and credit with credit marked to market. My definition of deflation is contraction of money supply and credit, with credit marked to market.

Both Fekete and I have definitions that differ from the pure Austrian concept of expansion of money. And we have been in the same boat in one sense. Neither of us thought the expansion of money would lead to huge "price inflation" and it didn't.

From a practical standpoint, I believe my definition explains the real world better than other definitions.

In my model, and called for in advance, the US experienced deflation from late 2007 until March of 2009. At that point Bernanke managed to reignite demand for credit and the stock market took off.

I expect another round of deflation when various asset bubbles pop. Meanwhile, and as long as asset bubbles are expanding, I do not believe deflation is the best word to describe current events. That said, I would state the current setup is highly deflationary looking ahead.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

History Lesson for Hypocrites, Warmongers, and Fools

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 04:09 PM PDT

In response to Obama Doctrine; An Astonishingly Good Deal? "Only Rand Paul Could Do Worse" Says Senator Graham reader Michael says I am naive and we should "cut out the cancer" now.

In a subsequent email Michael called me "Neville" ...
Dear Neville,

I'm sure a compassionate, but determined U.S. President, could figure out a way to work with pro-western Iranians to overthrow the Iranian regime while minimizing collateral damage.

I guess I'm just more concerned about losing a million New Yorkers than you are. What the hell, they're mostly Jews anyways.

Sig Heil Mr. Chamberlain
Track Record

Dear Michael, let's take a look at the track record of US overthrows starting with the very place the madness started, an overthrow in Iran.

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, masterminded by the United States under the name TPAJAX Project and backed by the United Kingdom under the name 'Operation Boot'.

The US installed Shah of Iran ruled as a brutal, corrupt puppet of the US until a violent overthrow in the Iranian revolution of 1979.

In 2013, under freedom of information lawsuits, the Guardian reported CIA Admits Role in 1953 Iranian Coup.

So dear Michael, how well did that coup work out?

Netanyahu Lesson from 2002

Here's another history lesson: Who said "If You Take Out Saddam, I Guarantee It Will Have Enormous Positive Reverberations".

Here's the answer: Benjamin Netanyahu in 2002.

Iraq War: Predictions Made, and Results

Let's take a look at previous predictions, when they were made, and how accurate they were, starting with a Christian Science Monitor report Iraq War: Predictions Made, and Results.
Ahead of and shortly after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a number of officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz suggested the war could be done on the cheap and that it would largely pay for itself. In October 2003, Rumsfeld told a press conference about President Bush's request for $21 billion for Iraq and Afghan reconstruction that "the $20 billion the president requested is not intended to cover all of Iraq's needs. The bulk of the funds for Iraq's reconstruction will come from Iraqis -- from oil revenues, recovered assets, international trade, direct foreign investment, as well as some contributions we've already received and hope to receive from the international community."

In March 2003, Mr. Wolfowitz told Congress that "we're really dealing with a country that could finance its own reconstruction." In April 2003, the Pentagon said the war would cost about $2 billion a month, and in July of that year Rumsfeld increased that estimate to $4 billion.
I believe we all know how that turned out.

Lost Cause

On July 24, 2010 I wrote Afghanistan is a "Lost Cause"; Leaked Documents Show Futility of Afghanistan War
The questions on my mind are: How many trillions of dollars do we have to spend, how many lives need to be wasted, and how much longer are we going to be involved in the boondoggle known as Afghanistan?
The total amount of the waste and lives lost is unknown, but we now have an answer to my 2010 question: "how much longer are we going to be involved in the boondoggle known as Afghanistan?".

The unfortunate answer is "until 2024 at least".

How much will fighting ISIS really cost? No one can answer that now, but a safe starting point for discussion is somewhere between 10 and 100 times initial projections.

Accountability

In Iraq Splinters Into Pieces, Al Qaeda in Control of Several Cities, Kurds Take Oil City Kirkuk; Thank George Bush and the Neocons; Iraq Before and After I held the Bush Administration largely responsible for this mess.

Sure, president Obama made many mistakes but the initial, most damning mistake was the Iraq invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

In a follow-up post, Assessing the Blame for Iraq: Bush, Obama, McCain, Others; Iraq Sunken Costs I asked for self-assessment.

Time for Self-Assessment

I can and do blame Obama for countless things. But Republicans would be very wise to self-assess on Iraq, on nation building, and on warmongering in general.

Instead of self-assessment, warmongers want more war.

Deficit-Hawk Hypocrites

As is always the case, John McCain leads the war rally cry in the Senate.  In the House, Speaker John Boehner Says U.S. may have 'no choice' on combat troops.

Not once have these Republican deficit-hawk hypocrites said how they propose to pay for this. Not once has McCain ever placed the blame for ISIS where it belongs.

ISIS a U.S. Creation

ISIS is 100% a US creation. ISIS arose following inane US nation-building policies starting with the absurd belief the "Iraq war would pay for itself."

This self-made mess produced Strange Bedfellows: To Fight ISIS, US Now Supports Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Other Terror Groups.

I concluded "Strange Bedfellows" with a warning "Just remember ... To make matters worse, you have to begin somewhere."

In 1993 the Washington Post stated Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Costs Top $4 Trillion

Oops. They forgot to factor in ISIS fighting.

Ukraine

How well is the US sponsored overthrow of a democratically elected president in Ukraine working out? 

Compassionate Idiocy

Nonetheless reader Michael asserts "I'm sure a compassionate, but determined U.S. President, could figure out a way to work with pro-western Iranians to overthrow the Iranian regime while minimizing collateral damage."

To top it off Michael takes out the Hitler card as if Iran wants to conquer the world.

Finally, proving that he is also a hypocrite, somehow it is OK for Israel to take out Iran preemptively but not the other way around.

Why are We Working with Iran and Saudi Arabia?

Inquiring minds should take a look at a Glenn Greenwald appearance with Glenn Beck: Why are We Working with Iran and Saudi Arabia?



Matter of Life and Death

Arguably, it makes far more sense to work with Iran than Saudi Arabia. Not only was it Saudi nationals behind 911, it is now extreme Sunnis that form ISIS.

It is Saudi groups that fund and support ISIS.

Iran is predominately Shiite. Given that Sunnis and Shiites look alike, here's an interesting set of Questions Rebels Use to Tell Sunni From Shiite.

When ISIS captures a village,  Shiites are killed on the spot.

Lesson in Trust

Reader Michael sides with war hawks and says we cannot trust Iran.

Good grief. We inspired a military coup in Iran, installed a brutal regime for the benefit of US oil interests, we back Israel no matter what it does, and let Israel have a nuclear program.

In the wake of 911, Iran offered assistance to track down Bin Laden and the US refused.

Now, people bitch we cannot trust Iran.

Hell, Iran is damn near crazy to trust us given that track record, especially when leading Republicans vow to overturn any agreement in 2016.

Accord Speaks for Itself

  • Iran will give up about 14,000 of its 20,000 centrifuges
  • Iran will give up all but its most rudimentary, outdated centrifuges: its first-generation IR-1s, knockoffs of 1970s European models, are all it gets to keep. It will not be allowed to build or develop newer models.
  • Iran will give up 97 percent of its enriched uranium; it will hold on to only 300 kilograms of its 10,000-kilogram stockpile in its current form.
  • Iran will destroy or export the core of its plutonium plant at Arak, and replace it with a new core that cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium. It will ship out all spent nuclear fuel.
  • Inspectors will have access to all parts of Iran's nuclear supply chain, including its uranium mines and the mills where it processes uranium ore. Inspectors will also not just monitor but be required to pre-approve all sales to Iran of nuclear-related equipment. This provision also applies to something called 'dual-use' materials, which means any equipment that could be used toward a nuclear program.

Even if Iran reneges down the road, as long as those points are verified before sanctions are removed, Iran's nuclear program would be set back years, if not longer.

But that is not enough for reader Michael or the war hawks. Both want to take out Iran (at minimum cost of course).

Then both have the gall to bitch about Iran logically wanting a weapon to defend themselves from just that.

Israel Demands Changes

This reports just in: Israel calls for changes to international nuclear deal with Iran.
Israel stepped up its lobbying campaign against the agreement on Iran's nuclear programme on Monday, listing the changes it regards as essential in the framework accord that Tehran reached last week with world powers.

Yuval Steinitz, the minister for intelligence and strategic affairs, said on Monday that Israel would try to persuade the powers — the US and five others — "not to sign this bad deal or at least to dramatically change or fix it".

Mr Steinitz said that Israeli military action remained an option, despite the framework accord. "It was on the table, it's still on the table, it's going to remain on the table," he said. "Israel should be able to defend itself, by itself against any threat." 
It's no wonder Iran is paranoid.

Addendum

Please consider Conservatives say Obama is like Neville Chamberlain. They said the same about Reagan.

My comment: People, especially warmongers, pull the Hitler card at the slightest provocation. It's nearly always wildly off base. Please read the article for discussion. 

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Right on Cue: Fed's Dudley Delivers Dovish Speech

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 11:58 AM PDT

Futures were negative following Friday's dismal job showing but that lasted only as long as the the market open.

Right on cue came dovish pronouncement from Fed governor William Dudley in a speech to a New Jersey audience on the regional and national economy.

Reuters reports Rate Hike Timing Now Unclear.
The timing of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, which would be its first in nearly a decade, is unclear and for now policymakers must watch that the U.S. economy's surprising recent weakness does not signal a more substantial slowdown, a top Fed official said on Monday.

New York Fed President William Dudley's comments were the latest sign that a string of disappointing economic data, including a sharp drop in jobs growth last month, is derailing a Fed plan to tighten monetary policy around mid-year after more than six years of rock-bottom rates.

In relatively dovish remarks to a business audience in Newark, New Jersey, Dudley did not repeat his refrain that a rate hike could reasonably be expected to come by mid-2015.

A permanent voting member of the Fed's policy panel and a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Dudley repeated that the rate hike would come once the labor market improves more and when policymakers are reasonably confident that low inflation will return to a 2 percent goal.

"The timing of normalization will be data dependent and remains uncertain because the future evolution of the economy cannot be fully anticipated," he said, adding he expects the path of rate hikes to be "relatively shallow."

Low oil prices and the drop in domestic drilling will exert a "meaningful drag" on U.S. economic activity, he said. The strong dollar will continue to hurt U.S. trade performance, and has already shaved an estimated 0.6 percentage point from overall 2015 growth, he added.

Longer term, he said the Fed's key policy rate will probably rise to only about 3.5 percent, lower than previously thought.

Dudley has been under political pressure for perceived regulatory missteps by his New York Fed, with lawmakers and even one former Fed official floating changes. But Dudley defended the status quo on Monday, saying his Fed bank should continue to play a key role in monetary policy during periods of stress.
Text of Dudley Speech

Reuters, as is typical from mainstream media, did not bother linking to the text of Dudley's speech.

Inquiring minds may wish to read Dudley's Speech on the Regional and National Economy at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, New Jersey.

His speech was certainly on the dovish side. Yet, it did contain many positives.

Dudley Snips
Economic performance in this cycle has been disappointing compared to historical patterns.  ... despite very accommodative financial conditions and record corporate profits, growth of business fixed investment has been tepid. 

Looking forward, my outlook for 2015 is that economic growth will be close to the pace of the past two years, supported by continued solid fundamentals and accommodative financial conditions.  If I am correct, then this would lead to a further reduction of labor market slack, with the unemployment rate approaching 5 percent by the second half of the year.

The pace of improvement in the labor market has slowed in recent months from the strong pace at the end of last year. Nonfarm payroll employment increased in the first quarter by about 200,000 per month, well below the pace of the fourth quarter. This slowdown was broad-based, with job growth slowing in both the goods-producing and the service-providing sectors.

The unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in March: analysis by my staff suggests that the unemployment rate is nearing the point where we may begin to see a pickup in the pace of real wage gains. If this proves correct and unemployment continues to decline as I expect, then these stronger wage gains could help support solid income growth even if the pace of employment growth slows.  However, it will be important to monitor developments to determine whether the softness in the March labor market report evident on Friday foreshadows a more substantial slowing in the labor market than I currently anticipate.

The March labor market report is another indicator that the first quarter is likely to be quite weak.  Our current projection is that the economy will grow at about a 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2015.  This softer performance is suggested by a wide range of recent indicators that have surprised to the downside over the past couple of months.  Examples of such indicators include retail sales, the ISM manufacturing index, manufacturing production and orders, and single-family housing starts.

Overall, I view these downside surprises as reflecting temporary factors to a significant degree.  For example, some of the recent softness is likely due to yet another harsh winter in the Northeast and the Midwest.  My staff's analysis of a measure of both the amount of snow and the population affected indicates that January and February weather was 20 to 25 percent more severe than the five-year average.  Such large deviations appear to have meaningful negative impacts on a number of economic indicators.

Even so, there are some downside risks to the growth outlook.  In particular, the steep decline in crude oil prices is likely to lead to a further sharp drop in U.S. oil and gas investment.  Additionally, the significant rise in the value of the dollar is likely to lead to weaker U.S. trade performance.

Turning to the negatives, the support to growth from rapidly rising U.S. oil production almost certainly will fade away.  U.S. oil production has been rising rapidly for several years, due largely to new technology that has expanded the amount of oil that can be recovered from existing wells and that has facilitated shale oil production by fracking.  Now, with prices dramatically lower, U.S. oil exploration and drilling activity is falling off very sharply. This will exert a meaningful drag on economic activity.

Another significant shock is the nearly 15 percent appreciation of the exchange value of the dollar since mid-2014.  Such an appreciation makes U.S. exports more expensive and imports more competitive.  My staff's analysis concludes that an appreciation of this magnitude would, all else equal, reduce real GDP growth by about 0.6 percentage point over this year.

Turning to inflation, the data continue to come in below the FOMC's objective of a 2 percent annualized rate for the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) deflator.  The twelve-month change of the total PCE deflator was 0.3 percent in February, with the core PCE deflator at 1.4 percent.  Despite this, my expectation is that inflation will begin to firm later this year.  In particular, most of the impact from the decline in energy prices that has weighed down overall inflation is likely over.

Monetary Policy

As the FOMC has consistently communicated, the timing of lift-off will depend on how the economic outlook evolves.  As I have discussed, the labor market has improved substantially and I expect to see inflation begin to firm later this year.  If this labor market improvement continues and the FOMC is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to our 2 percent objective over the medium-term, then it would be appropriate to begin to normalize interest rates.  At the March meeting, the FOMC removed language from the statement that indicated that we would be patient in beginning the process of normalizing monetary policy.  But, as Chair Yellen remarked in her most recent press conference, removal of "patient" from the statement does not indicate that we will be "impatient" to begin to normalize monetary policy.  Rather, the timing of normalization will be data dependent and remains uncertain because the future evolution of the economy cannot be fully anticipated.

Whenever the data support a decision to lift off, I think it is important to recognize what this would signify.  It does not mean that monetary policy will be tight.  We will simply be moving from an extremely accommodative monetary policy to one that is slightly less so.  It also will be a positive signal about the progress we have made in restoring the economy to health.  In my view, it would be a cause for celebration, because it would signal that the FOMC believes that slightly higher short-term interest rates are consistent with its objectives of maximum employment and price stability.  Near-zero short-term interest rates and a larger Federal Reserve balance sheet were designed to be a temporary extraordinary treatment to help the economy regain its vitality, and not a permanent palliative.

How high will short-term rates ultimately need to go?  I think this issue is very difficult to judge for a number of reasons.  First, it depends on how financial market conditions evolve in response to our monetary policy adjustments.  Second, it depends on other factors, such as real potential GDP growth, which, in turn, depends on the growth rates of the labor force and of productivity.  My current thinking is that the long-run nominal federal funds rate consistent with 2 percent inflation is somewhat lower than in the past.  My point estimate is 3½ percent, but I wouldn't bet the farm on this.  I have considerable uncertainty about this estimate.
Key Sentence

"Whenever the data support a decision to lift off, I think it is important to recognize what this would signify.  It does not mean that monetary policy will be tight.  We will simply be moving from an extremely accommodative monetary policy to one that is slightly less so."

Outlook Brighter

Flashback December 2: New York Fed President William Dudley says "Dreary Days for U.S. Economy May Be Over".
Despite some headwinds, Dudley is optimistic that America could grow closer to 2.5% to 3% in the coming year instead of the ho-hum 2% growth that has been a hangover of the Great Recession.

"The U.S. economic outlook looks brighter, with growth likely to be somewhat above the trend of the past five years," Dudley said in a speech on Monday

In fact, Dudley thinks the economy could soon be healthy enough for the central bank to lift interest rates off the ground.

He's signaling the Fed will likely be able to raise interest rates in 2015.

"While raising interest rates is often portrayed as a difficult task for central bankers, in fact, given the events since the onset of the financial crisis, it would be a development to be truly excited about," Dudley said.

"When the [Fed] begins to raise its federal funds rate target, this would indicate that the U.S. economy is finally getting healthier," he explained.
In response, I commented Fed Governor Dudley "U.S. Economic Outlook Looks Brighter"; Ring! Ring! Goes the Bell: "Fed Governors tend to be among the best contrary indicators you can find, so much so that I have to wonder if a bell just rang. William Dudley is ready to sell. But I ain't buyin' it."

Dudley On the Economy




In spite of his brighter outlook about which he is now uncertain, Dudley only wants to go from an "extremely accommodative monetary policy to one that is slightly less so," precisely the cue the market was seeking.

One of these lovie-dovie speeches will be a major sell signal, but the Wall Street salivating dogs won't recognize it when it happens. Perhaps no one will.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Employment: What Age Group Gets the Jobs?

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 01:52 AM PDT

Inquiring minds are investigating job creation. Here is the question at hand: What age group or age groups get the bulk of the jobs?

ZeroHedge claims No Country For Young Workers: Only Americans 55 And Older Found Jobs In March.
We first showed back in October 2012 that in America, courtesy of the Fed's micro-mismanagement of everything, the labor force has been turned upside down, and the only jobs being created are those for aged workers, Americans 55 and over. The reason is two-fold: with savings rates at zero, Americans who were on the verge of retiring found that the fruit of their labor was worth nothing under ZIRP (and may well be punished under the upcoming NIRP) as their savings (and fixed income investments) generate zero interest income, while young Americans would rather stay in college by the millions funded generously by trillions in Uncle Sam student loans.

All of this was on full display in today's jobs number, which while disappointing wildly based on Establishment survey data, was even worse based on the Household survey where only 34,000 people found jobs in March. But it was the age breakdown that was the stunner, and it can be seen best in the chart below.

In short: America continues to be a country where there are only jobs for old men, those 55 and older, who saw a 329,000 increase in jobs in the past month. Every other age group saw job losses!
March Job Losses by Age Group



That was one of the charts ZeroHedge posted. Technically there is nothing wrong with the chart, assuming the numbers are accurate.

However, the chart does not show where gains and losses are in a realistic manner.

A couple charts of my own will explain why.

55 and Over Employment



Note the volatility in this series. Last month employment in the 55 and over category declined by 187,000. This month it rose by 329,000.

Is Age Group 55 and Older Gaining or Losing Employment?

Quick question: Judging from the above chart, is age group 55 losing or gaining employment?

The correct answer is "relative to population growth, it's impossible to tell!"

The only realistic way to prove or disprove ZeroHedge's claim is to factor in age demographics. The proper way to do this is compare the growth in population of an age group vs. growth of employment in the same age group.

Let's chart this for two age groups.

  1. Civilian Population 55 and Over
  2.  
  3. Civilian Population 25-54

To chart relative employment gains or losses I take the population change from year ago and subtract employment levels from a year ago.

  • In periods where growth in population exceeds growth in employment the charts are in positive territory.
  •  
  • In periods where growth in employment exceeds growth in population the charts are in negative territory.

55 and Over Population Minus Employment Year-Over-Year



For age group 55 and over, the growth in population far exceeds growth in employment for every year-over-year comparison. This demographic is "not" adding employment.

25-54 Population Minus Employment Year-Over-Year



For age group 25-54, year-over-year gains in employment were greater than population gains every month since November 2011 except for September and October of 2013.

This is by no means a strong recovery. It simply means the ZeroHedge statement "We first showed back in October 2012 that in America, courtesy of the Fed's micro-mismanagement of everything, the labor force has been turned upside down, and the only jobs being created are those for aged workers, Americans 55 and over." is incorrect. 

Let's do the exercise again month-over-month. For this exercise we need to use seasonally adjusted numbers for employment.

There are no seasonal adjustments for population numbers, you are either alive and counted or dead and not counted, except perhaps for voting purposes in certain places.

55 and Over Population Minus Employment Month-Over-Month



March is one of about 20 months in this series where employment in age group 55 rose relative to population. It is opposite to the long-term trend, yet common enough to be meaningless. One month proves nothing.

25-54 Population Minus Employment Month-Over-Month



Note the purple squares for each year. In years where employment rises faster than population, the bulk of the area will be below the zero line (i.e. negative numbers).

Let's do a sum of the months.

Age Group 25-54 Population Minus Employment 2008-2014

Year Population Growth - Employment GrowthMonthly Average
20082,708,000225,667
20093,476,000289,667
2010-404,000-33,667
2011-672,000-56,000
2012-731,000-60,917
2013-187,000-15,583
2014-1,107,000-92,250

Age Group 25-54 Net Gains and Losses

In 2008 the average net monthly loss in employment was 225,667.
In 2009 the average net monthly loss in employment was 289,000.
In 2013 the average net monthly gain in employment was a mere 15,583.

The only strong year in the set is 2014 where net employment gains relative to population growth averaged 92,250 per month. Once again, negative numbers show employment growth relative to population growth.

In 2013, relative to population growth, there was only a tiny gain in employment. The unemployment rate fell dramatically thanks to people dropping out of the labor force.

That should put in context the much hyped monthly job gains over the last year. 

Age Group 55+ Population Minus Employment 2008-2014

Year Population - Employment Average
2008984,00082,000
20092,117,000176,417
2010877,00073,083
20111,049,00087,417
20121,847,000153,917
20131,735,000144,583
20141,054,00087,833

Relative to growth in population there has not been a single year that shows age group 55+ has gained employment. Indeed, the best year in the lot was 2010 where population-adjusted employment fell an average of 73,083 per month.

The following tables show the huge gains every year in retirement age groups 60-64 and 65+.

Age group 60-64 consists of people who may want to retire. Age group 65 and older consists of people who probably want to retire.

Population Growth 60-64 (numbers in thousands)

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2005127191276012890129471298813036130361299012986129971307613073
2006131351312813255132991335813327133731340913450136291371313736
2007138411387514138141751426214352142601442414521146231475614842
2008148661480614833148441478214943149831512615267152991537315437
2009154231551615609156051560715714157601584615958160071614316279
2010162971633716398163281644316455164951659916737168091698617139
2011171341714417124171621716117294173681735417465175061758217513
2012178151774517650177051763117632176391777417779178411791917790
2013178471785417830179041796718056181181827118151181261824118170
2014182931837618394184411847518449185221847218593186641872918873
2015188481891918973

Population Growth 65+ (numbers in thousands)

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2005348883493334955349823501435033350843514935168352063520135208
2006353623539535461355093555435607356253567135733357973580435841
2007359463595636013360483613336207362343629036351364443651136603
2008368103686636925370023705437110371653724737318374373748137522
2009376773770937782378613790537967379793805938143382323829738362
2010384013844438499385733858838668387083879138877389063897339045
2011393833940239450394783948839575396353977839937400454020840364
2012410854123141379414814160141751418764208242278424134255742695
2013427244285142986430714319243307434534360743710438874399844155
2014442654440244561446384478744875450024511645249453984553445685
2015457804593646091

Retirement Age Perspective

  • Since March 2008, the age 60-64 demographic rose by 4,140,000.
  • Since March 2008, the age 65+ demographic rose by 9,166,000.
  • Since March 2008, the 60+ demographic rose by 13,306,000.

It is reasonable to assume some of those in age group 60-64 retired. It is reasonable to assume most of those older than 65 did retire.

Yet, retirement alone does not account for the huge drop in the unemployment rate. I will prove that in a followup post with a discussion of "core unemployment".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Give Your Brain A Meal By Feeding It These Interesting Facts

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 04:47 PM PDT

Because you can never know too many interesting facts.





















Actors Who Were Originally Cast In Iconic Movie Roles

Posted: 06 Apr 2015 11:37 AM PDT

If only we lived in a world where we got to see "The Terminator" starring OJ Simpson.



















9 Things You Need to Know About Google's Mobile-Friendly Update - Moz Blog


9 Things You Need to Know About Google's Mobile-Friendly Update

Posted on: Monday 06 April 2015 — 02:15

Posted by Suzzicks

Rumors are flying about Google's upcoming mobile-friendly update, and bits of reliable information have come from several sources. My colleague Emily Grossman and I wanted to cut through the noise and bring online marketers a clearer picture of what's in store later this month. In this post, you'll find our answers to nine key questions about the update.

1. What changes is Google making to its algorithm on April 21st?

Answer: Recently, Google has been rolling out lots of changes to apps, Google Play, the presentation of mobile SERPS, and some of the more advanced development guidelines that impact mobile; we believe that many of these are in preparation for the 4/21 update. Google has been downplaying some of these changes, and we have no exclusive advanced knowledge about anything that Google will announce on 4/21, but based on what we have seen and heard recently, here is our best guess of what is coming in the future (on 4/21 or soon thereafter):

We believe Google will launch a new mobile crawler (probably with an Android user-agent) that can do a better job of crawling single-page web apps, Android apps, and maybe even Deep Links in iOS apps. The new Mobile-Friendly guidelines that launched last month focus on exposing JS and CSS because Android apps are built in Java, and single-page web apps rely heavily on JavaScript for their fluid, app-like experience.

Some example sites that use Responsive Design well in a single-page app architecture are:

Also, according to Rob Ousbey of Distilled, Google has been testing this kind of architecture on Blogspot.com (a Google property).

Google has also recently been pushing for more feeds from Trusted Partners, which are a key component of both mobile apps and single-page web apps since Phantom JS and Prerender IO (and similar technologies) together essentially generate crawlable feeds for indexing single-page web apps. We think this increased focus on JS, CSS, and feeds is also the reason why Google needs the additional mobile index that Gary Illyes mentioned in his "Meet the Search Engines" interview at SMX West a couple weeks ago, and why suddenly Google has been talking about apps as "first class citizens," as called out by Mariya Moeva in the title of her SMX West presentation.

A new mobile-only index to go with the new crawler also makes sense because Google wants to index and rank both app content and deep links to screens in apps, but it does not necessarily want to figure them into the desktop algorithm or slow it down with content that should never rank in a desktop search. We also think that the recent increased focus on deep links and the announcement from Google about Google Play's new automated and manual review process are related. This announcement indicates, almost definitively, that Google has built a crawler that is capable of crawling Android apps. We believe that this new crawler will also be able to index more than one content rendering (web page or app screen data-set) to one URL/URI and it will probably will focus more on feeds, schema and sitemaps for its own efficiency. Most of the native apps that would benefit from deep linking are driven by data feeds, and crawling the feeds instead of the apps would give Google the ability to understand the app content, especially for iOS apps, (which they are still not likely able to crawl), without having to crawl the app code. Then, it can crawl the deep-linked web content to validate the app content.

FYI: Garry Illyes mentioned that Google is retiring their old AJAX indexing instructions, but did not say how they would be replaced, except to specify in a Google+ post that Google would not click links to get more content. Instead, they would need an OnLoad event to trigger further crawling. These webmaster instructions for making AJAX crawlable were often relied on as a way to make single-page web apps crawlable, and we think that feeds will play a role here, too, as part of the replacement. Relying more heavily on feeds also makes it easier for Google to scrape data directly into SERPS, which they have been doing more and more. (See the appendix of this slide deck, starting on slide 30, for lots of mobile examples of this change in play already.) This probably will include the ability to scrape forms directly into a SERP, à la the form markup for auto-complete that Google just announced.

We are also inclined to believe that the use of the new "Mobile-Friendly" designation in mobile SERPS may be temporary, as long as SEOs and webmasters feel incentivized to make their CSS and JavaScript crawlable, and get into the new mobile index. "Mobile-Friendly" in the SERP is a bit clunky, and takes up a lot of space, so Google may decide switch to something else, like the "slow" tag shown to the right, originally spotted in testing by Barry Schwartz. In fact, showing the "Slow" tag might make sense later in the game, after most webmasters have made the updates, and Google instead needs to create a more serious and impactful negative incentive for the stragglers. (This is Barry's image; we have not actually seen this one yet).

In terms of the Mobile-Friendly announcement, it is surprising that Google has not focused more on mobile page speed, minimizing redirects and avoiding mobile-only errors—their historical focus for mobile SEO. This could be because page speed does not matter as much in the evaluation of content if Google is getting most of its crawl information from feeds. Our guess is that things like page speed and load time will rebound in focus after 4/21. We also think mobile UX indicators that are currently showing at the bottom of the Google PageSpeed tool (at the bottom of the "mobile" tab) will play into the new mobile algorithm—we have actually witnessed Google testing their inclusion in the Mobile-Friendly tool already, as shown below, and of course, they were recently added to everyone's Webmaster Tools reports. It is possible that the current focus on CSS and JavaScript is to ensure that as many pages are in the new index as possible at launch.

2. If my site is not mobile-friendly, will this impact my desktop rankings as well?

Answer: On a panel at SMX Munich (2 weeks after SMX West) Zineb from Google answered 'no' without hesitation. We took this as another indication that the new index is related to a new crawler and/or a major change to the infrastructure they are using to parse, index, and evaluate mobile search results but not desktop results. That said, you should probably take some time soon to make sure that your site works—at least in a passable way—on mobile devices, just in case there are eventual desktop repercussions (and because this is a user experience best practice that can lead to other improvements that are still desktop ranking factors, such as decreasing your bounce rate).

3. How much will mobile rankings be impacted?

Answer: On the same panel at SMX Munich (mentioned above), Zineb said that this 4/21 change will be bigger than the Panda and Penguin updates. Again, we think this fits well with an infrastructure change. It is unclear if all mobile devices will be impacted in the change or not. The change might be more impactful for Android devices or might impact Android and iOS devices equally—though currently we are seeing significant differences between iOS and Android for some types of search results, with more significant changes happening on Android than on iOS.

Deep linking is a key distinction between mobile SERPs on the Android OS and SERPs on iOS (currently, SERPs only display Android app deep links, and only on Android devices). But there is reason to believe this gap will be closing. For example, in his recent Moz post and in his presentation at SMX West, Justin Briggs mentioned that a few sample iOS deep links were validating in Google's deep link tool. This may indicate that iOS apps with deep links will be easier to surface in the new framework, but it is still possible that won't make it into the 4/21 update. It is also unclear whether or not Google will maintain its stance on tablets being more like desktop experiences than they are like mobile devices, and what exactly Google is considering "mobile." What we can say here, though, is that Android tablets DO appear to be including the App Pack results, so we think they will change their stance here, and start to classify tablets as mobile on 4/21.

Emails are also increasingly impacting SERPs—particularly mobile SERPs), since mobile email opens have grown by 180% in three years, and Google is trying to take advantage of this increased engagement on mobile devices. As of now, schema can be included in emails to drive notifications in the Google Now app, and also to let Google surface marked-up emails in a browser-based search. This all happens by virtue of Google crawling all emails that come into your Gmail account, and indexing them to your user-profile so that they are accessible and able to rank like this across all of your devices (even if you aren't currently logged into your Gmail account on your phone). Optimizing emails for mobile search is also becoming more important, and in the 4/21 update Google could do more to push the use of Schema markup in emails to drive personalized search results like the one shown to the right.

Inclusions like this mean that even if you are able to maintain your keyword rankings in mobile search after April 21, you may not necessarily be able to sustain your mobile traffic.

4. What about sites that redirect to a mobile subdomain? Will they be considered mobile-friendly?

Answer: This is an interesting question, because immediately after the roll-out of the Mobile-Friendly tagging, we actually saw significantly more mDot ('m.') websites ranking well in the mobile SERPS. It's almost like they counted the mobile subdomain as a Mobile-Friendly signal, but started the algorithm fresh, with no historical data to indicate which other sites had fewer obvious signals of mobility, like a responsive design, or an adaptive or dynamically served mobile site. It is also interesting to note that many of the Google representatives seem to have recently backed off of their strong insistence on responsive design. They still say that it is the least error-prone, and easiest to crawl and index, but they also now seem to be more willing to acknowledge the other viable mobile site architectures.

5. How do I know if my site meets Google's requirements for mobile friendliness?

Answer: Google has created a Mobile-Friendliness tool that will give you a 'yes' or 'no' answer on a per-url basis. Pages are evaluated individually, so another quick way to get a sense for how your top pages perform is to do a "site:" query for the domain in question on your phone. That will allow you to see all the pages indexed to the domain, and evaluate which ones are considered Mobile-Friendly and which are not, without having to submit them to the tool one at a time.

Google has been clear that Mobile-Friendly test results are binary, meaning that your page is either Mobile-Friendly or it is not. There is no 50% or 70% Mobile-Friendly result possible—no middle ground. They have also taken care to specify that Google's Mobile-Friendly evaluations are somewhat instant, implying that there is no proving-time or "sandbox" associated with the tag, but this could be somewhat misleading. There may be no intentional time-delay before a page is awarded the Mobile-Friendly notation, but it will only change after a crawl of the site indicates that the page is now Mobile-Friendly, so it is close to instantaneous if the pages are getting crawled on a very regular basis.

We have found that the tool result does not necessarily match up with what we are seeing on our phones. We have occasionally also noticed that sometimes two pages in the same page template will perform differently, even though the content that changes between the template is primarily text. Both of these variations could simply be an indication of real-time delay between the tool and the crawler—the tool does an ad-hoc check on the URL to assess mobile-friendliness, but if the bot has not been by the site to evaluate its mobile friendliness recently, then the page in question would not yet have the Mobile-Friendly designation in the SERP. With this in mind, remember that when you are updating a page, and pushing it live for testing, you must use the tool to see if the update has been successful, until the site is re-crawled. This also means that once you see success in the tool, the best way to get the Mobile-Friendly designation to show up in the results faster might just be to push a sitemap in Webmaster tools, and try to trigger a fresh crawl.

6. How does having a mobile app impact my mobile rankings?

Answer: There are two things to consider here. First, if a mobile search query is highly correlated with mobile app listings (the app "download pages" in the Google Play and iOS App Stores), your app could see significantly more visibility within mobile search results pages. This is because Google has started treating apps as a new kind of universal search result, returning an "App Pack" of Google Play results for certain searches on Android devices (shown at the right), and adding an Apps drop-down to the main nav-bar on iOS devices (not shown).

An "App Pack" is a group of related apps that rank together for a given query, shown together in a box separate from the inline organic search results. It has different formatting and an "Apps" header. These often float to the top of a mobile search result, pushing the second or sometimes even the first organic result below the fold. This is also discussed in Justin Briggs' article about apps. Currently, there is a high correlation between Google Play "App Pack" rankings and exact-match keywords in the app title. Google also seems to be evaluating app quality here and tries to serve only higher-than-average rated apps in the App Pack (this generally tends to be around a 3.5 – 4 star minimum for common keyword phrases).

If Google starts to serve these App Packs on iOS device searches as well, all apps that have keyword-optimized titles and have high-quality ratings and reviews could jump up to the top of the mobile web SERPs, increasing their visability and likely downloads. Conversely, mobile websites that currently enjoy an above-the-fold #1 or #2 organic ranking may get pushed below the fold in mobile SERPs, especially for queries that are highly correlated with mobile app results. This could cause a negative impact on mobile website visibility (without necessarily changing standard numeric rankings), in cases where a query returns a mobile App Pack—regardless of whether or not an app within that pack is yours.

Second, Mariya Moeva (Google Webmaster Trends Analyst) recently announced at SMX West that Google will be considering "high quality" apps to be a positive ranking factor in mobile search. We took this to mean that Deep Links between your website and your app will improve your website rankings in mobile search. Deep Links are different from app store listings in the App Store or Google Play, because they link directly to a specific screen within your app experience. They look just like regular links in the mobile search result, but when you click them, you are given the option of opening the link in on the web or in the app.

Currently, if you add Deep Links to your Android mobile app and associate your app URIs with corresponding (content-matching) webpages, Google will recognize the connection between your app content and your web content (and allow users who have your app installed to access your content directly in the mobile app). As it is now, the only way for Deep Links to your app contents to appear in search results is:

  • For app screens to have a 1-1 content parity with webpages
  • For those screens to have proper Deep Link coding that associates them with the corresponding pages on the website, AND
  • For your app to be installed on the searcher's device. If the app is not installed or there is no corresponding web content, the links in the SERP will just behave as normal, web links.

Mariya didn't state exactly how Google will be evaluating the quality of apps, but we can guess that Google will be considering signals like star ratings, reviews, and +1s. And if what we assume about the 4/21 update proves to be true, it is possible that app URIs without corresponding Deep Linked web content may rank independently in a mobile SERP from information that Google aquired via app feeds. In this case, "app quality" could be a positive mobile ranking signal for its own URIs/ screens, and not just the website it is associated with. This would be a great boon for app descovery.

7. Do I need an app, and if so, should it be Android, iOS or both? What if I have a limited budget?

Answer: If you have the budget to develop both a mobile app and a mobile website, there can be significant value to maintaining both, particularly if you leverage the mobile app as a "value add" for your customers and not just a website duplicate (though enabling some functionality duplication is necessary for deep linking). If you have a limited budget, you will have to make a choice, but it is important to consider this a business choice and not primarily an SEO choice. Your business might be well served by a mobile website or might be better served by a mobile app with only a promotional mobile web landing page meant to send web traffic to app stores (ex. Tinder). In general, most businesses can be extremely well served by a mobile website and should focus their budget on making that experience great across many devices. We only recommend going "app-first" if you are trying to offer an experience that cannot be delivered well on a mobile website. Experiences that offer a valuable offline utilities (think photo-editing apps), or take advantage of heavy computing (like gaming apps) or rely on non-web input elements such as device accelerometers or GPS, are often better suited for an app.

Apps are generally riskier because they require more up-front investment, and have to be tightly in sync with app store guidelines and approval processes that you have no control over. There are a lot of barriers to entry; just building and maintaining an experience can cost an average of $100k per platform, so it's important that you know this is the right experience for your customers before you choose this path.

If you decide that an app experience is the best choice for your business (or you have budgeted an app in addition to your mobile web experience), you can use the operating system data in Google Analytics to help you determine which Operating System is more popular among your users. If you don't have this data because you don't have a website yet or you have too limited a mobile audience to determine a trend, you should choose the platform that best matches with your monetization strategies. iOS users tend to spend more money than their Android counterparts, but there are more total Android users around the world than iOS users. The implication is that if you plan to monetize your app with user transactions like In App Purchases (IAPs) or Subscriptions, iOS may be the way to start, but if you plan to monetize your app with advertisements, Android could be just as lucrative, if not more so. If Android app discovery is made easier with the 4/21 update but iOS app discovery is not, that could also factor into the decision process.

8. How is mobile traffic impacted by the user search query? Is there a way I can find out if my top keywords are mostly desktop or mobile keywords?

Answer: Search queries actually matter more and more for mobile, because Google is trying to do a much better job of anticipating and embracing a user's intent from the query. This means that often, Google is presenting the information a searcher requests directly in the search result above the organic rankings. SEOs are used to this for local-mobile searches, but it is now happening for all kinds of searches, so it can steal traffic that would otherwise go to the site and can skew success metrics.

Google has expanded the types of information that they scrape and pull from a site directly into an answer box, especially in mobile. They have also increased and diversified the number of aggregator-style "Sponsored" results that show up in mobile—especially on Android. The top mobile search result for most flight, hotel, music, and TV show queries are now specially designed, sponsored, aggregated results that push the old organic results below the fold. Whenever you see a little grey 'i' in the upper right hand corner of a mobile search result – especially a specially formatted list of results that Google has aggregated for you, that means that Google is probably getting a small portion of any related transaction, even if it is just the website paying for the click. Simple blue-link search results may soon be a thing of the past—especially above the fold.

Even regular, non-aggregator-style PPC results are taking up more room and looking more compelling with click-to-call, star ratings, app icons, links for directions and ad extensions, so these may be more of a threat for SEO moving forward (shown on the right). There is a long list of examples that we shared in the Appendix of Cindy's SMX Munich deck about the Future of Mobile SEO. With all the scraping, PPC may be the only way to out-rank Google and get above the fold for some queries in the mobile SERP.

If you have not seen Dr. Pete's presentation from SMX West this year about the Changing of Google SERPS, you really must! It addresses this question in the desktop format, but I think the crux of what he is saying is even truer in mobile. This Dr. Pete quote from a related interview is very telling:

"Google is essentially competing against us with our own information, and I think that's a turning point in the relationship between Google and webmasters." -Dr. Pete

In terms of which keywords are more mobile-oriented than desktop-oriented, this can be a difficult question. You can get some basic information from Webmaster Tools by filtering the keyword information to show mobile only queries, and you can do something similar in Google Analytics. Beyond that, there are some more sophisticated solutions, like those from Search Metrics and Brightedge, but those are often out of reach for smaller operations.

9. What is Google's goal with all of these mobile-friendly changes?

There are obviously a lot of goals in the mix here, but we do believe that Google is making these changes primarily to provide a better mobile experience for searchers, and give people exactly what they want. That said though, they are also in it to make money. Being able to easily surface apps in a search result will help them drive more and better app development for Google Play and monetize their other content like TV shows, books, magazines, movies, and music—all of which have been threatened recently by competitors like Hulu, Amazon, and of course iOS App Store and iTunes.

Google has been encouraging publishers to include transcripts with videos and song lyrics with songs. In the long run, those will help Google scrape and show those things in answer boxes, as shown at the right, but eventually they will probably also surface their own version of the content from Google Play, with links just below the answer box, so that you can watch the video or download the song directly to your phone on Google Play. When you think about Google's intentions on this front, and try to envision the future, it is important to note that Google is actually already offering Google Play for iOS, which currently just provides the Google Music cloud-storage and a music subscription model. We expect this to expand as well, so that Google can expand their level of competitiveness here too. 


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