Why did Trump lie to us telling us that prices would drop on day one? You've been doing nothing but blaming Biden and liberals yet I think we can all reference Trump's words. Again, why did he tell us that prices would drop on day one? He knew everything about Biden and all the laws passed before he made that statement. Why did he make that statement?
I have to concede that I deluded myself into predicting that Kamala would win. If I was more objective I would have bet on Trump for the following reasons. Although a number of polls predicted that she would win they were all within the margin of error meaning they were statistically dead heats or in other words they were too close to really be predictive. In virtually every poll the respondents indicated that the most important issue was the economy and more specifically prices and that Trump was better able to handle the economy than Biden and later Harris. Harris pretty much sewed the seeds of her defeat when she said that wouldn't have done anything differently than Biden. Although the Democrat position on social issues didn't help it was the difference in prices between 2020 and 2024 that sunk Harris and there wasn't anything that she could do about it.
Tariffs have little effect on inflation overall. If the price people are paying for A, B and C are raised by tariffs then people will have less money to spend on X, Y and Z. So price rises for X, Y and Z would be less. As for labor shortages, at this point Trump is deporting criminals and probably people who are not working. That isn't inflationary.
Elasticity plays a role. Say, for example, your washing machine goes out 6 years ago. If you want a new machine, you're going to purchase one, as no other machine will suffice. And Trump's tariffs on washing machines during his first term caused prices to rise. Even domestic washing machines saw prices rise. If your foreign machines are seeing a 15% price increase, you can raise your prices by 5% to 10% and increase profits and your product is now priced lower. Trump is now raising tariffs on steel. If you need steel to say rebuild a bridge in Maryland, you use steel. Regardless of price. What else are you going to use as a replacement? As for immigrants, there are stories of raids in California fields and immigrants are on high alert. It's causing many immigrants to be too scared to go to work. This creates labor shortages and will cause food prices to rise. And food is a very inelastic good. We all need to eat.
Trump acknowledges ‘inflation is back’ but blames Biden https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/economy/trump-inflation-is-back/index.html
