Air travel is certainly back as consumers return to the skies after years of covid-related curbs. The TSA reports that on Friday it screened 2.785m people, which is the highest number of passengers in a single day since 2019.
Couple that with today's surprise 21.7% jump in US housing starts and higher rates aren't exactly having the desired effect.
Airfares for later in the summer have come down compared to where they were a few months ago, so we could (should?) be seeing the 2019 highs -- which are just below 2.8m -- taken out on the July 4 weekend.
The question for the Fed is whether this indicates that rates need to go significantly higher, or whether the lag of monetary policy needs time to work.
