On this day in 2011, the pop band Maroon 5 released one of the best tribute songs ever made, “Moves Like Jagger.” The song, fused throughout with disco and electro-synth beats, is about a guy trying to impress a girl by comparing his dance moves with those of Mick Jagger.
The song ended up #1 in the US that year, but the video was no slouch. It featured a montage of old footage of Jagger dancing onstage with cuts of members of Maroon 5 playing their little hearts out. It was nominated for a Grammy Award that same year.
Oh, did we mention the song also featured Christina Aguilera on background vocals? You remember her, right? She was the genie in a bottle who had a short-lived diva battle with Britney Spears in the late 1990s.
Now, back to Mick Jagger.
Was he the greatest dancer who ever lived? Hardly. But as Adam Levine, lead singer for Maroon 5, would later say, most people can’t be James Brown, Michael Jackson, or even Prince. But they can flail around for a few minutes and get into the ballpark.
This month’s economic indicators are a little like that—trying to convince you they can dance.
Yes, unemployment is still low, and gross sales nearly hit $1 billion in one month in Rapid City. And average weekly wages are still above $900 a week.
But everyone knows the real story.
And that’s inflation. The US simply cannot continue to see 8%+ (year over year) inflation each month and tell us the economy is a Rolling Stones concert.
It’s why the Fed recently raised interest rates by 75 basis points (three-fourths of a percent, for those that speak English). And it’s why they will probably increase rates by another 1.25% by the end of summer.
In just a few years, we will have seen mortgage costs double. Combine this with the still-insane prices of commodities (corn is up 16.4% year over year in the Rapid City region alone), and you have a perfect storm for a possible recession into next year.
How much will this affect the Rapid City area, given the continued expansion of the Base and the generally recession-resistant nature of the Black Hills ecosystem? Your guess is as good as ours, but we remain hopeful there will still be dancing next spring.