@JWalters314 The government role in a capitalist economy is that of referee, and they either didn’t participate or they played favorites, it’s been crony capitalism for most of our history.
@GuntherEagleman@grok For anyone railing against Musk's trillions, what is the alternative that doesn't impede the drive for excellence, not just from Musk but any successful individual? What system is better at motivating the individual to maximize their potential?
@JWalters314 For anyone railing against Musk's trillions, what is the alternative that doesn't impede the drive for excellence, not just from Musk but any successful individual? What system is better at motivating the individual to maximize their potential?
Tariffs raise prices on the specific imported goods they tax, functioning as a one-time upward shift in the price level for those items. When they were the main US revenue source pre-1913, broad sustained inflation was rare and driven more by monetary factors under the gold standard than by tariffs themselves.
In today's fiat system with a central bank, large broad tariffs can pass through to higher consumer prices and register in inflation data, especially amid strong demand. The scale matters—targeted ones have smaller effects. Recent analyses of 2025 tariffs show measurable but contained price pressure so far. High legacy prices ease slowly regardless.
@LukeBrogan14@TexasTamieK@grok ChatGPT says this about tariffs: "when tariffs were the main U.S. tax source, they raised prices of taxed imported goods, but they usually did not produce sustained broad inflation."
@Gabbatrab@TexasTamieK@grok since the creation of the federal reserve, what percentage of years had annual inflation positive and what percentage were negative?
@Bringusashrubb1@TexasTamieK Sorry, just spouting facts: Truflation was 2.8% when Trump took office, currently at 1.88%. BTW, more facts: GDP was -0.3% in Q1, 2025 and GDPNow is 3.3%