Trump’s: attack on the Fed’s independence, forcing respected economic experts to push a bullshit political line, and generally incompetent economic comments and policies…are bad for the rule of law, the economy, and people in general. But, one factor that will determine how bad this is, is whether, after Trump, we see further degradation of the rule of law and more bad economic policies, or whether it gets better.
Canadians are pissed at the United States, not just its leader, for Trump’s aggressive, bellicose, and demeaning comments and goals regarding Canada. They are most insulted by Trump’s insults to Canada’s sovereignty and some say that trust in the US will not come back. They plan to boycott American goods, cancel US travel, and flipp US products on store shelves to notify others that these are products from an asshole country. They don’t just blame Trump, they blame the American people, who truly did cause this aggression toward Canada.
1/3 two 2/3s of the big inflation we had was caused by supply side issues, meaning Covid-caused problems with producing goods, services, and energy, rather than too much government spending. The other 1 or 2 thirds…was government spending–the Covid relief bills.
Some people talked about tariffs like they would single handedly crush the economy. That’s unfortunate because models showed that tariffs are bad for the economy in ways that hurt people, but aren’t usually significant enough to single-handedly crush the economy. This makes it easier for people to incorrectly deny the harms of tariffs in general, and the harms of the current and recent tariffs.
When it comes to the federal debt and deficit, the American voting public are children who want: candy, sugar soda, to stay up all night, and to skip school, and their politicians tell them: Yes. The politicians who have said they would prioritize debt and deficit who then got into office, didn’t fulfill those promises. And when we do reduce parts of spending, we do it on those who most need the government spending.
15 to 30 percent of grocery costs are diesel fuel. Groceries are moved with vehicles using diesel fuel.
By the end of the Biden administration, the US was approaching a full soft landing, but Trump ruined it with government spending, tariffs, war, and strict immigration policies.
An Iphone isn’t a tech product, it’s a luxury product. Owning an Apple means you should reproduce, owning an Android means your DNA should not move on.
When we talk about parts of Germany being “left behind”, we are talking about first-world problems. These areas are still wealthy by world and historical standards. But, their wealth and economic growth is smaller than the big cities.
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.
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.