Inflation is coming down
Gas prices and grocery prices are lower according to Trump! Inflation is coming down!
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/politics/fact-check-trump-grocery-prices-down/index.html
The fact that half of America thinks this guy is playing 4D chess when in reality he's actually just a fucking idiot that has no idea what inflation is and thinks a trade deficit means America is getting ripped off is laughable.
China has implemented export restrictions on certain metals to the US and the EU is weighing export restrictions as well. Do we even need exports from other countries? Or is the goal complete isolationism and self-sufficiency?
And now Trumps wants to fire Powell for not decreasing rates because Trump has no idea what inflation is and how it works.
It's gonna be hilarious when MAGA supporters have to perform mental gymnastics for the nth time when the tariffs fail to produce anything fruitful. Who's the bigger clown? The clown himself or the people who voted for him?
The trade deficit thing and getting ripped off is dumb as fuck. We run deficits because our citizens spend a lot on imports. All maga voters hear Trump say is minorities and transgender people are ruining this country.
Saying we have a deficit with China because "we spend a lot" is missing the point entirely.
It's an objective fact that China cheats on trade. They illegally subsidize their companies, manipulate their currency, and have non-existent environmental and labor standards. When US companies try to enter the Chinese market, they're subject to onerous regulations and tariffs, and have their IP outright stolen by Chinese companies. The CCP literally hacked Google, stole its source code, handed it off to Baidu, and then banned Google under censorship laws so now Baidu dominates the Chinese search engine market. This is just one example. In what world is this kind of behavior okay? How long should this continue until something is done about it?
On the flip side, we've gutted high-quality manufacturing jobs across the country. This has not only had an economic cost of millions in unemployment, but also social costs like small-town decline, drug epidemics, and mass migration to overpriced urban centers where the few high-quality jobs are left.
The notion that Americans don't have a competitive advantage in manufacturing is idiotically incorrect. The United States was the world's leading manufacturing powerhouse from the late 1800s to 2007. We have the greatest business environment, technical know-how, and entrepreneurial ambition on the planet. Did Americans suddenly become incompetent and inefficient manufacturers after 2007? Or did China cheat global trade in every way possible to gut our sector?
Trump is doing the right thing. It's great that China could grow for a while to lift millions of its people out of poverty, but the party's over now. Their behavior is coming at a cost to Americans, and it's about time that the US government did something to help its own people.
I need to stop you right there.
Why the fuck would you want to enter China as a manufacturer? So you can sell your Ford at x10 the price of a local Hyundai? (median salary in China at $10k btw)
If you think that producing Fords in China = cheaper for locals, I need to disappoint you. Ford has a cost of almost 30k excluding labor costs, so what a fucking great business idea entering into China: Spend 30k in a Chinese factory to save $950 in labor costs/regulations/etc. (expenses on a single car), so then I can sell it to the Chinese at $8k (on par with local Hyundai prices), so I can make a great fucking profit of NEGATIVE $22k. Fucking congratulations (can someone bring the champagne?)
Let me not start with the costs of carrying the manufactured products to the US if that's even on the table as a discussion because again I will disappoint you with some numbers (1.5k/car to be shipped from China to US in order to avoid the $950 expenses - shit, need to ask, but is Jeff Bezos behind the other screen?
want to use locally made parts in China for Ford? at this point might as well rename it to Zhejiang Fordung Motors because it lost all its American image/quality/say goodbye to US market
whoever supports this administration, can you use some fucking common sense?
Your comment is so fucking stupid it’s hard to believe. China is a huge market with well over a billion people. On a level playing field of course companies would enter, but they cheat their asses off at every turn. And guess what moron, there are companies out there who do more than heavy mfg. Any IP, software, physical designs, art, novel therapeutics, etc. is consistency stolen with zero fucks given by the CCP. Gtfo with all this Xi ass kissing.
Last try because this website is terrible. No one should care if China has trade policies that are not optimal for the US because Chinese people do not make much money nor do they spend much money. All you accomplish by tariffing Chinese imports is to give China an incentive to work more closely with other countries and to raise prices for US consumers.
Again, what is up with your ilk being so adamant on ensuring access to slave / child labor and endless cheap plastic and electronic shit made by an antithetical government to the U.S.? Is your American identity simply wrapped up in the ability to buy endless cheap crap? It’s so disgusting that so many Americans like you have turned into this…
And no, China can’t just partner with everyone else and make up for America. America is far and away the #1 consumer nation in the world. It’s ridiculous how much useless crap we buy.
All of this would be interesting to discuss or debate if Mr Trump was aiming tariffs solely at China, or at countries that "cheat". But he isn't. You're describing Mr Biden's policies.
A broken clock is right twice a day, but that doesn't mean a broken clock isn't just fancy garbage. If Mr Trump was rolling out policies designed to level the playing field with Chinese state supported industries (e.g. what the EU wants to do to combat dumping) then he'd deserve some praise. But he isn't smart enough or sophisticated enough for that, and very obviously doesn't understand the points you're making. What Mr Trump thinks, by his own admission, is that a trade imbalance means the country doing the net importing is "losing".
Obviously the Trump Administration does not care about it's own people, which is why it's staffed by the wealthy and it's policies are aimed at helping the wealthy, and hurting the middle class and the poor. Your (reasonable) argument about why we should tariff goods from China simply doesn't reflect the stated reasons and observable actions of the Trump Administration's policies. He isn't interested in open and fair trade - he wants the US to become a net exporter, and that's it. Your entire argument is a lovely position of support for Democratic policies, but not so much as a buttress to what the current Administration is doing.
As always, what conservatives purport to want should actually lead them to vote for Democrats. The problem is you, as well as every other Trump supporter, don't give two shits about helping Americans. You care about the emotional satisfaction of winning a "culture war" by punching down at the most vulnerable portions of society
Right, I’m sure the valiant Democrats are invested in the welfare of the middle and lower classes with their malicious immigration policies. Of course, undercutting the actual working classes with hordes of disenfranchised illegals is actually helping Americans! Silly Republicans.
As per usual, out of sight, out of mind for craven parasites such as yourself.
Why are you providing an actually reasonable and sound comment? Don't you know this is for bloodsports only?
Who gives a fuck. I don't want to work in a manufacturing job in the U.S. and neither do you.
Believe or not, the population of the US is higher than 2 (shocking!).
All of Middle America gives a fuck. If you live in bumfuck Minnesota or something chances are you'll be working in a factory of some sort. I've seen what happens when these factories shutter or lay off and its not pretty. I think Trump's tariff policies are retarded as well but strength of industry is a number 1 concern for vast swaths of America you've never been to. Trump got elected in the first place because he's taking action (even if its the wrong action) on issues that many Americans feel forgotten on.
What’s so difficult for MAGAs to understand that people simply don’t want HEROIN ADDICTS to assemble their iPhones, TV, chips, plane engines or frankly anything of high value? Like fuck off, they should salivate about the fact that they are allowed to exist and breath despite being heroin addicts because they live in the US. Any other country would have detained and euthanized them, not giving them fucking jobs for gods sake.
Is this the famous left-wing compassion I keep hearing about? What happened to rehabilitation for the poorest, most vulnerable members of our society?
No, you’re right. They should be happy at the utmost privilege of being discarded and their plight ignored by the state, and dogs like you. After all, XYZ shithole halfway across the world would execute them, so we shouldn’t ever strive for better treatment of our own —the bare minimum of not organizing a class-based genocide ought to be enough for them.
Cool. So tell me, who the fuck is going to work in a factory making nikes in america all fucking day for $10 a day. Until that happens all that shit doesnt matter.
I'm all for voicing opinions and learning new things, so your Baidu claim is interesting and worth looking into. However, I'm not sure where you get the US is the worlds leading manufacturing power from the late 1800s through 2007. I know the US was the go to manufacturer post WW2 because the competition was Britain, Germany, China and Japan, all of which were decimated by said war, so we were really the leader by default. The reality is no one country can be the expert at everything; the US leads in software, services, and tech design, but China is far and away the leader in manufacturing. No need to believe me, take Tim Cooks word for it
.For those of you who read Trump’s Easter message, tell me why congress should not invoke the 25th amendment?
lol and now Trump is picking a fight with the Fed to cover up his fuck-ups.
Unsurprisingly the retard MAGAs on here have missed the point of my post entirely. I did not post this to initiate another debate about the trade war and tariffs. We've already concluded that the trade war is a retarded idea and Americans don't want it (if you disagree, you're welcome to go to the other threads (i.e. Make America Great Again!, DJT Single-handed Recession, etc..)) with your rebuttal, but it seems that no one from MAGA was able to defend the notion that this tariff war is what Americans, MAGA voters included, want...because they don't want it. No one wants to be poor let alone poorer than they already were. If you think Americans, even MAGAs, are willing to endure severe economic hardship, so that our companies might be more competitive, I'm happy to hear your retarded logic).
The point of my post was to demonstrate how retarded Trump is. He fucking thinks inflation is going to come down, not up, as a result of tariffs. He is certain that decreasing interest rates is best for the economy. The only logical explanation for why he believes this, despite basic fucking economics suggesting the opposite, is that he is a fucking retard who doesn't understand basic fucking economics.
Now, to all the retard MAGAs on here who want to practice your mental gymnastics, if you wish to debate me, you're going to have to take the position that tariffs, trade war, and lowering interest rates will lower inflation because that is what your joke of a president believes. So if you wish to defend him, you're going to have to defend his logic. So don't comment with your classic non-sequitur mental gymnastics that have nothing to do with the topic such as "the tariffs will help us gain political advantages!" (despite being unable to list any), "Other countries tariff us and play unfairly!" (go to the other threads), "Tariffs will bring jobs back!" (the most expensive job creation in history)
I bust out laughing anytime I see the MAGA gymnastics on this site.
In November 2024, it was all about how Trump was going to be an absolute boon to every asset class.
Now it’s April 2025 and the talking point is “well the markets were overvalued and Trump is setting us up for the long-term. The situation is really complex and we need to just see it play out”
Loooool
Hard to think clearly with an orange cock shoved down your throat.
The truth is, no one knows exactly what impact tariffs will have on prices, including you. Prices could go up, down, or sideways. The arrogance with which the MSM (and you) claim that prices are guaranteed to rise is simply unfounded.
I personally (emphasizing personally) think tariffs will raise prices on a select few goods but won't have an economy-wide inflationary effect. Tariffs are essentially a tax, and taxes are contractionary. So far, companies have responded to the tariffs in a few ways: 1) passing costs to suppliers, or 2) absorbing the costs themselves. Very few have responded by raising prices. Consumers have many alternatives (like buying domestically vs foreign, cooking at home vs eating at restaurants, etc.), so companies don't have the pricing power to hike prices while things are so expensive already.
Tariffs will probably result in downsizing and some poorly positioned companies going out of business, which is why interest rates have to go down. Low interest rates are stimulating, which will counteract the contractionary nature of tariffs.
Yeah this one is too easy. Watch.
"No one knows whether or not a meteor will land on their head the second they walk out their apartment door"
"No one knows whether or not they will get into a life ending car accident today"
"No one knows if the plane their about to board will take a nose dive"
"No one knows whether or not providing Iran with nuclear power will lead to them creating nuclear weapons"
"No one knows whether or not Hamas will really commit genocide against Israel given the chance"
"No one knows for certain when life inside the womb begins"
"No one knows whether or not Russia will really try to invade other part of Eastern Europe if we allow them to annex Ukraine"
"No one knows for certain that communism is an absolute failure"
"No one knows whether or not Bernie Sander's policies are actually bad"
"No one knows whether or not Kamala was the better or worse candidate than Trump"
So if no one knows anything? Why do anything? How do we do anything? Under your assumptions, if we must know every future outcome with certainty in order to make a decision today, then by that logic we can't ever do anything.
Yet everyday you wake up in the morning, walk out your door, get in a car, get on a plane, object to Iran's nuclear plans, oppose Hamas' attacks on Israel, oppose abortion, oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine, oppose communism, vote against Bernie, vote against Kamala. Why? Because of deductive reasoning.
You apply deductive reason to every part of your daily life when making decision, but when it comes to Trump's policies, MAGA throws deductive reasoning out the door and just throws their hands up any time he does something retarded and say "well you don't know the future" as if that is a logical defense.
Thank u, Next
-Ariana Grande
There are only two possible results from implementing tariffs - prices will rise or companies will absorb the costs and make less money. As with most taxes or rate adjustments we may not know the full impact for several months or longer, which is why the federal reserve is hesitant to lower interest rates
Despite the sarcastic title, it actually is - https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
Could you also provide a chart for the probability of a recession? A deflationary economy is also bad. Just curious what the probability of that looks like
This is backwards-looking data based on March. It doesn’t reflect the impact of the trade policy changes.
Not only is it backward looking but there is a substantial lag between a tariff announcements and pricing actually rising.
No duh it's backwards looking at March, it's April. Data for this month won't be out for 3+ weeks.
"It's gonna be hilarious when MAGA supporters have to perform mental gymnastics for the nth time when the tariffs fail to produce anything fruitful. Who's the bigger clown? The clown himself or the people who voted for him?"
The people who voted for him when he made about as clear as he could that this is what he was going to do
There are two types of MAGATS.
The poor who ignorantly enough buy the snake oil. Though they are problematic, they are too be pitied
The entitled rich, who’s privilege imbues them with such entitlement that they are willing to play games with everyone else’s livelihoods. They should send my regards to Louis XVI and and Nicholas II, whom they will be meeting soon.
It cannot happen fast enough.
Guys, the main goal, and I'm not sure I agree with the approach taken....
Alleviate the income inequality within America. NAFTA and other free trade agreements initially lowered the cost of G&S, at the medium term disadvantage of the middle class. Yes companies got the good cheaper and resulted in a public equity boom, but these jobs went overseas and never came back. We have 10% of all the americans owning all the public equities. Lobster men do not have 401ks......
To bring back these jobs, will increase the price of good, and "inflation", but not the monetary and fiscal inflation that people can't seem to differentiate between. This should aim to, and i know a lot of levers, take from the people with the money(the 1%) and "redistribute it" to the local companies and workers.
If the above works, and we can effectively reduce the amount of government spending, heck it would be a good thing.
Please answer a couple questions first:
1.) What are the real, existing costs to Americans as a result of the current trade agreements we have with other countries and their supposed "unfair trade practices?" Are Americans losing their existing jobs due to these trade agreements and unfair trade practices? Are they losing their savings? Or is it opportunity cost? There's a difference.
2.) Do you think there will be economic pain as a result of these tariffs? If so, what probability would you assign to the scenario that Americans will experience economic pain? Can you then describe in a little bit more detail what this "economic pain" entails? Is the pain more akin to employees just not getting a raise next year or people losing their jobs and struggling to put food on the table? There's a difference.
3.) What probability of success would you assign to your desired outcome as a result of these tariffs? Is it 100% guaranteed that we achieve these goals you seek? 90%? 50%? 10%? And when will we achieve them do you think? If the tariffs fail to achieve your desired outcome, could you please describe, in detail, what the American economy will look like? What global trade will look like? What is the plan B?
"Guys, the main goal, and I'm not sure I agree with the approach taken...."
Well isn't that what everything is about? I want to end poverty...does that mean communism is the solution?
"If the above works, and we can effectively reduce the amount of government spending, heck it would be a good thing."
Yes! This would be fantabulous. Now let's talk about probabilities shall we.
The Psuedo Intellectuals like a few of the posters here, similar to the All-In guys, especially Chamath and Sachs, wnat manufacturing back as a single focus of some set of great design around global manufacturing power vis a vis or against the PRC. They have recently realized that the Chinese government is actually a far superior development partner for the majority of commodity exporting nations (in the global south) and consequently have the entire supply chain for rare earths locked down. This matters because American military readiness, is literally unachievable without having some supply chain independence. While I think people like this are misguided, atleast I understand the juvenille geopolitical chess game they appear to be playing in their head. I would prefer to just give up the economic crown and share the security crown with China jointly, but alas we can't have good things, it seems.
MAGA is here just for the ride. Useless, worthless white trash. Nothing more and a probably a whole lot less. Let me tell you what they're really saying "I'm white, forget the fact that my ancestors were nothing more than 3rd rate irish/scots-irish/english/german farmers with no skills, we're the real america, and therfore our concerns must be heard!" The entitlement, my god, no other group, blacks, Jews, indians, latins, no other group of americans are this childish.
No, you'll die starving, without the jobs you thought your grandfather had, but never did. You will leave this world either from liver failure or from an opioid OD. I mean, its how you're kind is knocking yourselves out as we speak lol. You aren't entitled to shit, the american equity and bond markets, and most importantly the sanctinity of the US Dollar, won't be sacrificed for your lives, its the other way around, it was the decision that was made decades ago, even if nobody realized it at the time. I only hope our elites are as ruthless as abrohamovich, yeltsin, nazarbayev, karmiov, and are willing to take actions as brutal as they took, when they dismantled the USSR.
Hubris is causing the demise of MAGA and America. Listen to these MAGA idiots on here. They think America became the great nation it is today solely on its own and believe that the rest of the world should be lucky to even be in our presence. In reality, the US's hegemony is less than 100 years old, which in the grand scheme of history, is peanuts. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years.
Trump and his MAGA morons think they can bully the rest of the world into submission and that's their biggest miscalculation. Most countries aren't even bothering to negotiate with the US, instead they are dumping US treasuries and taking their money and business elsewhere because the US is no longer the safe haven it once was. It took us decades to build our reputation as the safest and most stable country in the world and it only took Trump and his retard MAGAs 2 months to ruin it. Good job MAGA.
Regardless of how rich or poor MAGA’s are (though I will reserve special pleasure for watching it happen to the rich), they will be meeting Louis XVI and Nicholas II.
It cannot happen fast enough.
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