What If 'America First' Appears to Work? | Hacker News Reader

What If 'America First' Appears to Work?

theatlantic.com

2 pointspetethomas13 comments

“The short term consequences have appeared muted”

Have they appeared good? What am I winning?

> What am I winning?

Higher median usual real earnings [1].

I think the tariffs will wind up a disaster. But I thought they'd have sunk our economy quicker, which they haven't. Meanwhile, AI keeps the stock market bubbling upward.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

It seems to be working - companies that bought $2 China doohickies that sold them for $5 are now paying $4 and now charging $6 and you're going to get $2000 for buying that doohickie for a dollar more.

Meanwhile people that are in the working class don't buy doohickies, they just buy American grown food (for the most part) in this economy, so they aren't suffering much at all from the tariffs.

It almost makes trump sound like Robin Hood.

Why are they removing the tariffs on beef?

Why is my grocery bill so high then, literally everything is more expensive.

because biden made it high

In 2057 do we get to keep using the same excuse?

He did. Trump doubled down on inflationary policies, from inducing supply shocks to cutting rates while blowing the deficit.

That hasn’t updated since July though, is the trend continuing?

> is the trend continuing?

We'll find out on Friday [1]. (Last update was in August.)

[1] https://www.bls.gov/schedule/2025/11_sched.htm

A bit rich to start off by conceding that the policies are coherent.

Read his other articles, the author makes a living pretending that he’s a Trump whisperer and can read the five-dimensional chess strategies.

Hard to convince somebody of something that interferes with their cash flow and all that.

This administration is not "America First". It is Trump first, second, third, ..., Trump's children/family, ..., ..., ..., influential people who stroke Trump's ego, ..., the rich, ...

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