Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
When talking about inflation, if a politician pulls out one or two items that make him look good, he is probably bullshitting you. There are almost always some items up a lot or down a lot in price. What usually matters, is how much prices are growing in general.
Trump appears to be importing a bunch of potentially unsafe meat from Brazil based on a closed door meeting with a mega donor, without much serious consideration from meat safety experts or the economic impacts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXnazzK7n20
Some economists think tariffs never make sense. Others, think that with strategy, thinking carefully about where to apply them, to which countries, on which items, what the different impacts will be, and informing and working with your allies…then tariffs could be a net good despite the costs. That’s not what we got from Trump.
With Trump, we got hectic tariffs that require a daily chart to manage them all. It doesn’t make sense to build a factory based on a short-term tariff that could change at any moment due to a variety of reasons.
Putting tariffs on every country cuts your leverage over any particular one country.
If the goal is to get specific industries back in the US, then you want highly targeted tariffs.
Liberation day tariffs were based on a simple formula and they were absurd on their face. The administration just didn’t do their homework when coming up with tariffs.
Trump ignored free trade agreements that the US had made with countries.
Trump enacts tariffs for a variety of personal reasons that don’t make sense, like tariffing Canada for fentanyl, even though US fentanyl mostly comes through Mexico. If I’m another country watching erratic tariffs, I don’t really know what to do to avoid tariffs, and I’m going to start planning with other countries how to counter this erratic country called the Untied States of America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO8b9CzyEdU
BREAKING: Trump Misreads Jobs Report, Threatens To Cut Off Trade
Europeans talk about, and are decoupling from, the US like how the US does China due to Trump’s erratic and threatening behavior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL_JZmdVzfg
The war against Iran has made the supply of oil low, and if something else happens like a natural disaster to decrease it further…things will be much worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeQwZgWN9dw
For many years, Republicans have made it easier for wealthy people to cheat on their taxes. WTF?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUU6jUZKkm0
When the government hires private contractors to deliver welfare, often these companies essentially steal people’s benefits through a variety of mechanisms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXpqejgnaB0
Bessent and Trump are going to war with the bond market, but the current interest rate is a bill to be paid, not an enemy to be fought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZaYyNAXHK4
The post-covid inflation was caused roughly 2/3s by supply issues and 1/3 by demand.
The Fed recognizing that the drivers were temporary, meaning they did not need to raise interest rates to crushing levels, and making clear that they were sticking to a specific interest rate target, helped create the soft landing, although the plane didn’t 100% land and instead stayed hovering above the ground. The landing was likely prevented by Trump-driven shocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luudo28Mx5M
The US demanded that Canada give the US control over Canada’s trade policy with other countries. The US also demanded that US companies streaming shows in Canada not be required to order the shows shown to users based on Canada’s cultural preferences. The US wanted Canada to end its Buy Canada program that it put in place in response to US tariffs without offering to cancel the US tariffs that caused this program. The US demanded that the US could change certain terms of the deal at any time.
Ridiculous and demeaning demands on a long-time ally. Ruining such a relationship is not good for the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhgw3qAxYlY