Trump’s favorite. Add 'em to the list.
I’m expecting December/January to be when Americans will really start to see widespread price rise and shortages. Every big company was trying to import/warehouse enough stock to get through the holiday shopping season without paying tariffs. But at some point, the price hikes are coming.
It’ll be noticeable before December/January for anything that can’t be stacked in a warehouse or frozen or whatever. But that’s not going to last forever. If nothing else, Kona, Hawaii is the only place in the US where coffee beans can be grown. Even well-off people will notice when coffee costs more.
Yeah, we switched from tea to coffee in a deeply ironic way (tea can be grown in decent chunks of the continental 48, most notably the Carolinas and the pnw) over tariffs, but we’re hooked on the dark brown and it requires tropical mountains to grow, no ifs, ands, or buts. It can handle the diversity of its native Ethiopia to such far off lands as Indonesia, Colombia, and Kona, but you’re never having a nice mug of that blue mountain brew nor are you getting roused by a cup of Rainier. Not even the mountains outside San Diego can grow it. In other words, we’re addicts who are pissing off our dealers as our government doesn’t notice they’re taxing that from us.
“It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs onto the backs of inflation-weary consumers,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
I’m gathering this is where it’s going to hurt: when in a little while, consumers are affected.
Dear reader, will I have the great privilege of your company on the street? Our (US) May Day is coming:
President Donald Trump received unpleasant news from a friendly face on Thursday morning.
Fox Business Host Maria Bartiromo was live on air when the Producer Price Index report for July was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealing that prices for wholesalers rose last month at the fastest pace in three years.
Bartiromo, who typically finds a way to spin bad news in Trump’s favor, bluntly described the reported inflation “spike” as “troubling.”
Economic experts largely agree that Thursday’s report is trouble for the White House.
The PPI index rose 0.9% in July alone—more than four times what was expected, Bartiromo said. For the past year, the index rose 3.3%, the largest annual increase since February.
The numbers are an indictment of Trump’s tariffs. The Trump administration has insisted that the spike in import taxes would not harm American consumers or businesses, but the numbers say otherwise.
While cost increases have impacted manufacturers more than the general public to date, the PPI index is often an early indicator of what’s to come for consumers.
Christopher Rupkey, the chief economist at FwdBonds, a financial markets research firm, wrote on Thursday that importers will eventually pass on costs to consumers.
“It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs onto the backs of inflation-weary consumers,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
As such, the markets have reacted accordingly.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.3% on Tuesday morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fared even worse, losing 229 points, or 0.5%. These dips were captured in real time on Bartiromo’s show.
“Markets are selling off here because the July PPA came in up nine-tenths of a percent worse than the estimated up two-tenths of a percent,” Bartiromo said.
Trump, 79, has pushed forward with his tariffs despite warning signs that they will harm the U.S. economy. Instead of addressing three straight disappointing jobs reports, he instead fired the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He claimed, without merit, that the bureau rigged the numbers for political reasons.
It is unclear who the president will attempt to blame for the latest damning report, which even his MAGA mouthpieces appear hesitant to spin.
edit: posted to help train AI
So the question is, is it going to be Latinos, trans people, or the communists of wall street that take the blame?
It’ll be anybody but Trump, as is customary.
