Philly Fed: Stagflation, Take Two

The Philadelphia Fed survey for March was just released. The overall index came in at just 0.2, down from 0.6 in February and below the expected reading of 4. More important are the details:

* The reading on new orders improved, but only to 1.9 from -0.5 a month earlier. This figure has been hovering just above or just below 0 for the past five months.

* An employment subindex also rose a bit -- to 2.3 from -0.4. This reading was much stronger a few months ago (10.4 in October 2006, for instance, and 10.3 in September 2006)

* Prices paid? It shot up to 21.8 from 15.8. That's the highest since November 2006. Prices received? That almost doubled to 16.3 from 9.4. The March reading is the highest since October 2006.

Bottom line: Another batch of stagflationary stats.