Fundstrat's Tom Lee: Economists Fighting Last Year's Wars on Inflation
Fundstrat Global Advisors' Tom Lee says that economists are misreading today's inflation picture. He argues that about 60% of the gap between core PCE and core CPI is driven by portfolio fees and flash memory prices, which do not reflect household inflation.
Lee points out that these two odd-ball price categories make up a significant portion of the difference between the Fed's preferred inflation measure and the inflation households actually feel. He believes that if you strip both out, core CPI is close enough to the Fed's target that aggressive tightening isn't needed.
Fundstrat's 2% Bitcoin recommendation has grown to more than 85% of some client portfolios because of Bitcoin's price rise. According to Lee, his clients did not buy more Bitcoin; they held the 2%, and Bitcoin's gone up a lot in price.
Lee also expressed a bullish outlook on Ethereum during the interview, pointing out that several market and industry trends could support ETH and strengthen its outlook. He is Chairman of BitMine (BMNR), a company that holds Ethereum as part of its treasury strategy.