A lot of people voted for Trump thinking he would get rid of illegal immigrant criminals–like rapists and murderers. Some of those voters are distraught that Trump is mass deporting illegals who are just working hard at a job.
The sad thing is, anyone who could objectively follow Trump could have told them: Trump was always going to mass deport, with most of those people being hard workers whose only crime was crossing a line they weren’t supposed to.
US citizens of Hispanic descent who work in immigrant-typical industries live in fear.
Because so much skilled construction labor was deported, house construction is now more expensive.
Economies have gotten more productive, and this increases the wages of those doing productive things. But, things like providing education, housing, and healthcare aren’t as much more productive. To keep people choosing these careers, wages for these jobs have gone up too. So, ironically, because everything else has gotten so cheap and productive, these basic things have gotten more expensive. Or at least, that is one reason.
When is dynamic and personal pricing managing supply and demand in such a way that benefits most people, and when is it just using tricks and technology to screw people?
Rent control has bad effects, but politically, when a city gentrifies, this can cause rents to raise so fast as to effectively be an eviction. Gentrification is good for creating flourishing urban areas, but it is unfair to the tenants already living there and could lead to political demands to stop the gentrification.
A rent control that slows the raising of rents, gives the current tenants more time until they can’t afford rent, and gives them more time to make more money, while allowing inflation-based rent raises and letting landlords charge market prices to new tenants…may be a net good.
Multi-year rent freezes that allow no rent increases are bad.
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 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.
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.