Inflation for consumers increased 2.7% over the prior year, and July showed prices increasing at the fastest annual pace in five months which is indicative of the fact that businesses are passing along the increased costs of tariffs which Mr. Trump said would never happen. More importantly, wholesale prices surged by 9/10ths of 1%, which is an advanced indicator of what customers will feel down the road.
Mr. Trump has declared that he is taking over DC policing operations and will introduce the National Guard, and the basis of course, is the increasing crime rate, which is in fact not supported by the data, no surprise there. This is just another distraction on the Epstein and Ukraine fronts, and to play to his base who believe cities, particularly Democratic ones, are lawless and hostile places.
The Big Beautiful Bill will allow 401k’s to invest in a much wider variety of investments which previously have been out of bounds because those investments are much less regulated than banks and stock markets, thus, opening up people’s retirements to being attacked by unscrupulous sellers of various investment products, coupled with the fact that these investment products will have very little reliable reporting to be provided to the investor. This, of course, over time will backfire, and the public will call for greater restrictions, but in between times, many investors will lose their retirement.
A new hire at the Department of Defense is shown on a video urging the January 6th rioters to “kill” cops. Let me repeat that – to “kill” cops. The DOJ’s public relations czar said that he is a valuable member of their organization. This is the Republican idea of supporting the blue?
Mr. Trump is having significant success bringing funds into the government through his tariffs; however, the question then becomes – how will they be spent? There is all type of speculation out there in terms of a tariff dividend being paid to Americans when, in fact, this money should be going to reduce the deficit, and therefore, the debt. But that seems to have little value to Republicans at this juncture, as they have passed a bill which will increase the national debt by $3 trillion. So far this year the debt has increased 1.37 trillion. Fiscal responsibility in government? It doesn’t seem so.
Congresswoman Stefanik has publicly blasted the Republican Chair of Clinton County as being ineffective and potentially throwing the upcoming Assembly race to the Democrats. I’m wondering if she is concerned about that race, or her race for Governor as she will need to rely on the County Chairs to push her towards the Governorship. It is also fascinating to me that she is taking these positions when she has failed to speak about any of the damage that Mr. Trump has done to our local economy with his attacks on Canada, the increased cost for consumers that tariffs are now creating, the increase in the debt by $3 trillion as a result of legislation she voted for, and it appears the only thing she seems comfortable doing is attacking people as opposed to working with them to create a better environment for herself and her party. Not part of her playbook, obviously.
A recent story in the New York Times talked about the closing of lumber plant in Montana, and the response of Republicans in that State to the loss of approximately fifty well-paying jobs. The employees who were interviewed were upset because although Montana Republican leaders said that the unemployment rate is so low that they will get new jobs, but apparently those jobs are paying at least $5.00 less per hour. It is hard to follow the logic of the Republicans at both the national and state level when pondering this story.
The recent deal made by Mr. Trump with the chip makers to take 15% of their revenue strikes me as truly ironic, this appears to be a tariff in reverse. It is also premised on the fact that these companies can sell to China which goes against everything that Mr. Trump has been saying in terms of what a danger China is when it has access to our technology. It is really hard to follow the logic here. Of course, that assumes there is some.
The US budget deficit went up 20% this year even after taking into account the tariff revenue. Again, where is the logic here, as I thought Republicans were historically concerned with spending and the deficit, but here they caved to Mr. Trump, and we now have an increase budget deficit even earlier than was predicted.
NBC News is reporting that the unemployment rate for young men between the ages of 23 and 30 is 6% while the same age bracket for women is 3.5%. Those young men who were persuaded by Mr. Trump to vote him because he was going to bring jobs back just might have been misled. I wonder if they see it?
A Goldman Sachs economist issued a report that indicates that tariffs are, in fact, being passed on with greater frequency to consumers which Mr. Trump objects to, and, of course, reverted immediately to name calling and personalizing his assault. Goldman Sachs’ Chief Economist said they are not backing down, as they are trying to advise their clients so that intelligent economic decisions can be made.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
