There's the Cost, and There's the Price

If you've wondered why many organizations are desperate to find cheaper human labor (white- AND blue-collar), you don't have to look too far.

I don't know how anyone can look at a near-6% increase in the PPI on finished goods and call this "good" when "inflation" is supposedly well under 3%.  That in turn means collapsing margins, which is starting to show up earnings.

Even more troublesome though is that crude and intermediate goods continue to show price increases substantially above that of finished goods

Charts, as usual, provided by Ticker.