The White House is trying to drive out the Federal Reserve chair. Critics warn it would be a costly bid to pass the buck
Memo from the White House: inflation is “right on track”, it declared this week, citing the latest official data. Price growth is now “very low”, according to Donald Trump. The actual statistics paint a markedly different picture.
Just six months after he regained power, in part by promising to rapidly reduce prices, Trump has presided over the chaotic rollout of tariffs on an array of overseas products that many have argued risk having the exact opposite effect.
After a lull, the consumer price index (CPI) is back on the rise. In June, everything from fruit and washing machines to dresses and toys became more expensive.
Businesses in the US and around the world have struggled to keep up with the Trump administration’s erratic rollout of its aggressive trade strategy: the daily White House soap opera of warnings, threats, confusion, deadlines, delays and drama.
I did see a couple odd things yesterday that could be tariff related. The toy section of one retail store seemed understocked and a grocery store that normally uses plastic bags ran out (which I hadn’t seen in 10 years). 🤔
I recently visited a big box home improvement store to pick up some brass fittings for a project for work, and found that the prices of every piece had nearly doubled in price. They are in a small section of Home Depot that 99.99% of people don’t even know exists, but I saw it as a canary in a coal mine. Soon, EVERY section will be like this one.
That’s how it begins. Gradually, you’ll see things you’re used to always having in stock disappear, while other things become steadily less affordable. It’s nothing that happens all at once, just a slow boiling of the frog until supermarket shelves are a wasteland.