I’m pleasantly surprised that the Supreme Court actually saw “emergency” as a laughable argument.

As a result of the f*ckery and ill advised threats and considering the long term damage done I have moved up my withdrawals and am altering my portfolio.

Taking a few flyers on some stock that stand to benefit from being grift adjacent.

 

Honestly, I dont think prices are going to come down anytime soon. If the data shows that people are willing to pay higher prices for goods, businesses will have very little incentive to pass those savings along. When the market proves consumers are still spending, companies tend to hold prices where they are. Why change?

Let’s just assumed that even if tariffs were removed, that difference would likely be absorbed as profit rather than reflected at the checkout. In practice, prices usually only come down when demand drops or competition forces companies hands. Prices of goods will remain the same for some time until inflation catches up to reflect it. This is my unbiased opinion, leaving red & blue politics out of it.

 

De dollarization started long ago. China has been pushing very hard on that, even trying to make their currency the standard. That was years ago and of course did not become real but the push is going strong.

The tariffs were bad, but we have not done much good in previous years either. In my job we develop products in just about every market (med, ag, automotive, industrial, etc) and our last and biggest growth spurt was during Covid. We had to double in size nearly during 2020 to keep up with demand. Some new customers, others were rushing to redesign due to part shortages. It then steadily declined for over 2 years. Our customers all cited a slow to a crawl in sales because everyone was unsure of the economy (starting in about late 2021 but worsened severely over the next 2 years). I know people all over in the product/tech development space and they all saw the exact same thing. Actually, our business started moving again and ramping back up starting about last Nov. First time since it started slowing that we saw a meaningful difference. Not super fast but we are way better than we were. I started taking consulting work on the side to backfill, now both the main company I work for and one I am contracting with want more of my time and I am having to fight one off from trying to hire me full time from the other. So something has been a lot more positive in the market but it is not a sudden boom... more of a slow ramp. Maybe this will turn it into another boom but we will see.

But most times prices go up or stay the same, they dont go down. Kind of like property taxes

 

NEXT??? why next?

some simple numbers...
Current US debt total $38.4 trillion by early December 2025
The debt rose by over $2 trillion during the 2025 fiscal year.
Interest Rates: As of November 2025, the average interest rate on total marketable national debt was 3.82%
annual debt service, with costs expected to reach roughly $1.04 trillion in FY2026

Just think if our wonderful currency falls off in popularity because people feel they can't trust the dollar anymore, that annual rate could jump dramatically.
We also shouldn't forget how much money is going to have to be refunded. So expect those deficit numbers are also going to jump.

 

Interesting stuff on the national debt if you read a lot about it. Pretty much every country has a fast rising national debt. All of them. It is how countries operate. Chinas national debt to GDP ratio hit over 300% in 2025. US, with a much higher debt number, hit 125% or so. The US and China hold the highest overall debt, but not the worst dept to GDP numbers. The fun part is when you start trying to read up on how every single country in the world (other than I think 2 or 3 tiny countries) have national debts, many of them huge and unpayable. Cause if they all owe so much money, who do they owe it to???? When it boils down, WE the consumers and the citizens of these countries are pretty much the only ones that pay any of it. The countries borrow money amongst themselves just passing debt around and printing money. Its the worlds oldest ponzi scheme as far as I am concerned.

But we will continue to print money, give out free stuff that we dont have, fund this , fund that until our money is worthless. We certainly will not be the first major world power to do it. This is a story old as the Roman Empire

 

We shouldn't have over-relied on the greenback as a policy tool...hopefully it's not too late with the next administration..

 

This topic is way too complicated for my simple brain.

I think I will go read the thread, Foods you love to cook and/or eat.

 

When you implement a 25% tariff on fertilizer/Potash ( the most important input for the majority of farmers in America) you are fueling higher food prices and doing nothing to lower prices. Farmers who are already financially strapped are just getting hammered some more now. The family farm is in jeopardy across America , they can't recoup that added cost as their markets are shrinking due to the tariff wars. The worst tariff that has been created is that on fertilizer (Potash)

 

Oh food? You mean that thing that has gone up in price at a significantly faster pace than anything else and gets EXCLUDED from CPI and PCE numbers?



Hope you're rich, that $*** is expensive if you want to "enjoy" it and not just eat it for survival.

source - https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi...ce=chatgpt.com

 

The Penguins are so relieved today....