I hope defeating woke was worth your parents, grandparents, kids and yourself being unemployed, starving and homeless.
Doesn’t sound like a good trade to me, but then again I have a whole working brain.
Political Economy
Riser
I have a tool that tracks prices on Amazon over time. It embeds a graph right on the page for me so it’s very easy to see. Any imported item you can observe the price rise as tariff expectations occur and then tariffs actually hit:
This is just a decorative item, but this huge price increase is and will be affecting everything else as well. Since January, the product has increased from $120 to more than $180. That happening across most of the economy is going to be very bad for everyone.
Party Like It’s 1929
a lot of people are still under the delusion that the tariff war is only affecting the stock market and not the โreal economyโ and they are in for a rude awakening pic.twitter.com/REweFMu47N
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) April 14, 2025
Very rude, and very soon. All y’all have no idea what’s about to hit.
Degoogled
Gฬถoฬถoฬถgฬถlฬถeฬถrฬถโฆ ex-Googler.
People who make their job their entire identity are puzzling to me. They don’t seem to realize that the role can and will go away at any time. And with it, their sense of self.
Like, dude, get some hobbies. A corporation does not give a single little fuck about you. Nope, not a one.
Behave accordingly always.
Opp Cost
People seriously underestimate how many problems with the American economy are just caused by stupid shit like nimbyism that we could just stop doing. Itโs more interesting to think that there are these structural problems that require radical action
— Aleph (@woke8yearold) April 10, 2025
NIMBYism is one of the worst of these. It’s reduced potential GDP likely by 30%. I’d guess more like 50%.
Polisee Saw
Depression still on track, no matter what pauses or changes Trump is doing. Tariffs are still tanking the economy and the policy chaos and uncertainty is even worse than the tariffs themselves.
Not much has changed, except to get worse.
Lower Case-ism
Has anyone else noticed how there is a “once in a generation” financial crisis and resulting economic catastrophe every 5-7 years now?
Huh.
Crack Country
Brussels is watching amazed, as Trump destroys the US economy. "Nobody in the Commission thought that the US government would be this stupid and self-destructive," an EU official tells me. "That they would blow up their own country by letting ChatGPT make their trade policy." ๐งต
— Jakob Hanke Vela (@HankeVela) April 7, 2025
I’ve not seen such insanity since watching a grown-ass man steal his own kids’ clothes to pawn and buy crack in North Florida.
And yes, that is real. So is the entire country being destroyed before our eyes now.
Destructified
We are heading for mega-maga-depression. I expect 30%+ unemployment within 18-24 months.
104%
Tariffs on China set to rise to at least 104% on Wednesday, White House says.
Taste the depression in the air. Likely will be more like the Long Depression that began in 1873 rather than the Great Depression. Alas for all of us.
Gadget
I Invented a Popular Kitchen Gadget. Tariffs Will Kill My Business.
And this will be happening a lot too; about 20% of the businesses in the US are unsustainable with current tariffs. If the tariff carnage continues this shuttering of previously-viable concerns will have vast follow-on effects. Depression, of course, but more than that. Somewhere between 40-60% of restaurants and service businesses will close. Entire neighborhoods will empty out as people cannot pay their mortgages any longer. Tent cities will sprout up across the land. Crime will rise and many areas will fall into chaos.
Every time massive tariffs have been enacted in the past, a depression has occurred. This time will be no different.
If you have favorite restaurants, visit them in the next few months. They probably will not be there in a year. And after that, you might not have any money anyway.
Changedness
Job offer pulled due to market crash.
Gonna be a whole lot more of this. Most of you do not know what’s coming nor how quickly the winds can change.
But you’re about to find out. I hope every single one of you who voted for Trump ends up in refrigerator boxes by the side of the road. I sincerely do.
Ress
I’m glad I was old enough to talk to my great-grandmother on what living through the Great Depression was like. She died in 1986 and was born between 1900-1903 (can’t remember for sure).
My grandparents recalled the tail end of it, but my great-gran remembered the whole thing as she was in her twenties when it began. I was pretty young when we discussed it, but I do have a clear memory of her saying that her family went from living in a three-bedroom house to being forced to downgrade to what was basically a converted shed. She also said that food became unaffordable and for several years they were reduced to eating one small meal a day.
A lot of you aren’t going to need Ozempic anymore with what’s on the way. And will be doing a reprise of the life of my great-gran. Hope you like your converted sheds or refrigerator boxes by the side of the road, because to be perfectly frank that’s where many of you reading this will end up in the next few years.
Get ready now to avoid that fate later.
Supply
Beans, lentils and some other supplies arrive today for the depression that is well on its way.
And if no depression materializes, great. We can still eat the beans and lentils. That’s how insurance against calamity works.
(Hint: There’s gonna be a depression. It’s baked in.)
Insecurity
Hours in Line, Cut-Off Calls: Accessing Social Security in the Era of DOGE.
The first step in killing Social Security, long a dream of the plutocrats. They will probably be able to do it this time.
I’d guess something like a 40% elderly poverty rate by 2040.