Category: Taxation

Unequal Taxation And Revolution

Most of my regulars know that I have this knack of spreading history every chance I get……and since yesterday was Bastille Day I thought I would look at the French Revolution as it might pertain to today’s America.

Deep inequalities in taxation played a key role in fueling the French Revolution, according to a new study published by the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin). For the first time, economists have substantiated this with figures. In areas where salt taxes and internal customs duties were particularly high, there were twice as many revolts as in low-tax districts between 1750 and 1789.

“Discontent was also reflected in the ‘petitions’ (Cahiers de doléances) submitted to the king by representatives of the commoners in early 1789. Regions facing higher taxes recorded 72% more complaints about taxes and customs duties in their petitions to the king,” says Marco Tabellini, research fellow at RFBerlin, assistant professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of the study.

The taxes varied dramatically across France. In low-tax districts, households paid 2.5% of their annual income on salt. In high-tax districts, the figure reached 13%.

“This long-standing resentment coincided in 1788 with a particularly dry summer, followed by an exceptionally cold winter, causing bread prices to soar and triggering a wave of hunger riots,” adds Tabellini.

The king, however, wanted to raise taxes in early 1789 because his military support for the Americans in their War of Independence against the British, as well as his lavish spending at the court at Versailles, had ruined the country. France had accumulated substantial debt by 1789, but the king was unwilling to declare bankruptcy.

https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unequal-taxation-fuel-french-revolution.html

I inject this into the reasons why we have a mini electoral revolution taking place here in the US…..taxation is unequal….the working peasants pay their taxes and the wealthy get a free ride…..and as usual the excuse for this inequality is that the wealthy create the jobs…..but they argument falls dead when employment numbers are looking rather dismal.

The masses are looking for people that will act not promise and so far the Dems have done nothing but promise and their actions have been limp and uninspired and not just recently but rather for decades.

The voter always looks for candidates that will improve their economic conditions and after decades of promise neither party has stepped up to do what was promised.

That brings us to today and the popularity of the DSA in elections….the voter has finally decided that since neither party is capable of improving the equality of the people then it is time to look elsewhere…..

We keep hearing the same tired argument from centrist Democrats and Republicans: if we tax the rich, we will lose a valuable source of revenue by displacing them to another state. While research suggests otherwise, Democratic Socialists and the vast majority of Americans who support taxing the rich need not get bogged down rebutting a counterfactual. Instead, we ought to argue that taxing the rich is a core American value because it protects and expands democracy. Taxing the rich is a critical tool that needs to be deployed in earnest at this time of democratic backsliding. As our democracy — the oldest in the world — teeters, the threat to domestic and global stability is of far greater consequence than unfounded parochial concerns deployed to maintain the status quo.

https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2026/06/08/taxing-the-rich-means-taking-their-power/

Will this trend keep flowing and will we see new blood in the Congress and maybe some new ideas?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Newsom The Best For 2028?

The Dems are scrambling to find the perfect candidate for the general election in 2028…..many people like California’s Newsom (I am not one of them)…my daughter is on that bandwagon and we argue a lot over her support for Newsom.

Personally I think he is a phony….yes he has done some amazing things in California and has stood up to Donny but that does not impress me that much….I think he is a Clintonian big business Dem.

Now a recent action on his part makes my case for me….

A world-renowned economist and expert on wealth inequality castigated California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday for working to kill a proposed tax on billionaire fortunes in the Golden State, warning that the Democratic leader and likely 2028 candidate appears bent on handing President Donald Trump “an unexpected ideological and political victory.”

Gabriel Zucman, a research professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed to a recent Bloomberg story detailing Newsom’s “last-ditch pressure campaign” to prevent a healthcare union-led initiative from appearing on California voters’ ballots in November.

…

In a lengthy thread posted to X on Monday, Zucman wrote that he is “shocked” by Newsom’s “efforts to defend Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg at the expense of Californians’ health,” referring to two of the state’s most prominent billionaires. Thiel has donated millions to an industry group looking to defeat the ballot initiative, which would use revenue from the wealth tax to offset the impacts of federal Medicaid cuts approved last year by Trump and congressional Republicans.

“Yet you are now devoting all your energy to preventing this ballot initiative from taking place and denying Californians the opportunity to express their democratic will this November,” Zucman wrote. “You have chosen to protect California’s billionaires at the expense of Californians’ health.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gavin-newsom-billionaire-wealth-tax

This proposed protection of billionaires is why he is not suitable for the candidacy.

That one subject is the biggest sticking point for voters…..the unbridled wealth that these fools are accumulating and paying no taxes.

This is why it is an issue and why is Newsom aiding these parasites?

Eighty-eight corporations that paid no federal income tax last year spent roughly $852 million on US campaign contributions and lobbying during recent election cycles, a report published Thursday revealed.

The report, “The Current Price of Zero,” was authored by Eileen O’Grady, a researcher at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. The publication draws upon an analysis published in April by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) showing that at least 88 of the nation’s largest companies paid no federal corporate income tax in fiscal year 2025, despite reporting combined US pretax income of around $105 billion.

“Using data from OpenSecrets, which compiles and publishes campaign finance and lobbying data, we found that from the 2020 election cycle through the 2024 cycle, these 88 companies have spent nearly $852 million on lobbying and campaign contributions,” O’Grady wrote. “We highlight the companies that spent the most money on lobbying, hired the most lobbyists, lobbied specifically on tax issues, and contributed the most cash to political campaigns.”

The federal corporate income tax rate is 21%, indicating that the 88 companies in the report dodged a combined $22.1 billion in taxes last year. Additionally, they received $4.7 billion in tax rebates, bringing their total tax breaks to approximately $26.7 billion.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/tax-dodging-corporations-spend-big-on-lobbying

Parasites!

And these are the types that Newsom is running interference for in the California legislature.

This makes him unacceptable as a candidate for me….period.

Is this what you look for in a candidate?

Even though I have pointed this out it will be forgotten in the future if he is a candidate…..that is truly sad.

Any deep thoughts here?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

NYC Does It Again

I recently wrote about a policy that the new mayor of NYC will pursue…..city owned grocery store….personally I think it is a great idea and more cities should be so concerned.

The mayor has yet another plan for the city….this time it will help city employees with child care….

Tucked in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sprawling universal childcare plan is a little-talked-about milestone: In September, the city will open what appears to be the first free daycare for municipal workers in the country.

The center, called The Little Apple, is a pilot program that could prove to be a model for cities across the country that are childcare curious, but not ready to take the big universal swing.

Housed in a renovated space on the first floor of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building in Manhattan, home base for more than 2,000 city workers, the Little Apple will offer free care to the kids of full-time staff. All workers in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), a city government support agency, can also take advantage of it regardless of their work location.

The center will be small — just 40 seats for children ages six weeks to 3 years old. To pay for it, the city budgeted about $1.5 million, or $35,000 per child.

“This is what Wall Street could call a good investment,” Mamdani said in a press conference announcing the new center. “We know that after housing, the cost of childcare is what is pushing working families out of this city.”

DCAS Commissioner Yume Kitasei told The 19th said the solution came about as a retention strategy, responding to the needs workers shared. In surveys, workers enthusiastically embraced the idea. One worker described access to free childcare as “life-changing.”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/under-mamdani-new-york-will-be-first-to-open-free-childcare-center-for-city-workers/

So far this man has done just about everything he said he wanted to do….he has my vote of mayor of the year.

Right after the first of the year the mayor first major proposal was a tax plan….

A number of new taxes have been proposed this winter and spring to address the City’s structural budget gap. They range from a surcharge on high-income Personal Income Tax filers, to a partial recapture of the federal tax benefits accruing to Pass-Through Entity Tax filers, to higher rates for the City’s business income taxes, to higher real property transaction taxes on luxury properties at time of sale. One of the most likely, and possibly only, new tax revenue to be included in the FY 2027 State budget is a tax on pied-à-terre properties in New York City.

To date, details on the proposed tax have been hard to find, but Governor Hochul announced a revenue estimate of $500 million from 13,000 “second homes” with market value of at least $5 million.  The lack of further information has spurred wide-ranging conjectures regarding which properties might be subject to the tax and how much they might pay.

In this Fiscal Note we use previous pied-à-terre tax proposals to estimate potential revenues and highlight areas of uncertainty. Based on the parameters chosen for the analysis, tax revenues are critically dependent on the share of targeted properties that are rented and on the behavioral responses to the tax. We find that, before adjusting for these factors, our choice of tax rates and brackets could raise almost exactly $500 million from a little over 11,200 properties. However, revenues could be reduced to between roughly $340 million and $380 million based on assumptions on exclusions for rented units and behavioral changes following the imposition of the tax.

The Pied-à-Terre Tax and Its Potential Revenues

Another policy that meets with my acceptance….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tax Day Comes And Goes

Sorry to be a bummer but I just had to say something.

April 15th was a couple of days ago…..did you go through the agony of preparing your taxes only to learn you owed the government?

Will it be a burden on your finances?

Well do not worry for no one will take up the slack for our ‘saviors’, big business, has gotten a swell deal from the government…..did you?

Dozens of America’s most profitable corporations avoided paying any federal income taxes in 2025, according to an analysis out on Tuesday from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The 88 companies—which include Tesla, Southwest Airlines, Live Nation, Palantir, Citigroup, and many others listed in the S&P 500—brought in a collective $105 billion in pretax income last year.

ITEP found that 2025 saw a spike in corporate tax avoidance, enabled in part by new loopholes created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump and by his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced the corporate tax rate to 21% from its previous 35%.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to hand the wealthiest 1% of Americans $117 billion in tax cuts this year, while those in the bottom 95% are set to pay more in taxes while facing across-the-board cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

It also allowed multimillion- and billion-dollar corporations to find new ways to avoid paying taxes. More than half of the tax-avoiders listed in the report used a provision in the new tax law allowing companies to immediately write off capital investments, reducing their collective taxes by $11.4 billion.

Pharmaceutical and tech companies, meanwhile, were able to take advantage of tax write-offs for research and development, exempting them from approximately another $4.4 billion.

In total, the corporate tax avoidance documented in 2025 by the researchers helped to rob the public coffers of yet another $26.7 billion, enough to give every public school student a free lunch for a year, according to a University of Missouri analysis of the National School Lunch Program.

https://www.alternet.org/big-beautiful-bill-taxes/

I am so proud of this country for making the hard working public pay all the goddamn bills while the robber barons sit on their fat asses smiling like that fat cat from Alice in Wonderland.

I am starting to like this NYC mayor more4 these days……he sees what I see….I wish others did…..

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is using Tax Day to remind Americans that the nation’s tax code is “rigged” to protect the superrich while making the case for a more equitable system.

In a Guardian op-ed co-written with Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Paris School of Economics professor Gabriel Zucman, New York’s democratic socialist mayor lamented that the world is living with greater wealth inequality than ever before, with just 0.0001% of the global population holding the equivalent of 16% of global wealth—more than the bottom half of humanity.

Mamdani and the economists attributed the global surge in inequality in large part to America’s “regressive” tax system, which has grown dramatically more favorable to the wealthy over the past half-century.

Compared to 1960, when the 400 richest Americans paid roughly half their incomes in taxes, they now pay about 24%—helped by a combination of lower marginal tax rates and loopholes that allow billionaires and corporations to shield their wealth and effectively pay a smaller share of their incomes than everyone else.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/zohran-tax-day

Ain’t capitalism great?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Taxation Without Representation

An old bitch but holds true today as it did in the 18th century.

What the Hell am I going on about?

Tariffs.  Remember those half ass ideas?

I have tried to get people thinking about this stupidity…..all tariffs are paid for by the consumer (that would be you)….

A new study of President Trump’s tariffs will not please the president: The research finds that Americans are footing nearly the entire cost of them, reports the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, the study from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany finds that US consumers and importers are paying about 96% of the costs tied to the tariff hikes, with foreign exporters absorbing the remainder. That runs counter to Trump’s frequent assertion that tariffs function as a kind of tax paid by other countries, and it suggests Washington may have less leverage than advertised in ongoing trade tensions with Europe.

“Foreign exporters did not meaningfully reduce their prices in response to US tariff increases,” reads the report, per Bloomberg. “The $200 billion surge in customs revenue represents $200 billion extracted from American businesses and households.” The researchers examined roughly $4 trillion in shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, concluding that the tariffs have effectively operated as a consumption tax on Americans, pushing up prices over time.

“There is no such thing as foreigners transferring wealth to the US in the form of tariffs,” co-author Julian Hinz of Germany’s Bielefeld University tells the Journal. He added, however, that foreign exporters might eventually absorb more of the tariffs if American companies find other sources of products. Earlier studies from Yale’s Budget Lab and Harvard Business School reached similar conclusions, though Harvard economists found that only about 20% of the tariff costs had fully shown up in consumer prices after six months, with much of the hit initially borne by US importers and retailers.

If that is not enough info then maybe this will help….

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-tariffs-impact-study

Why taxation with representation?

The cost of tariffs are a hidden tax that we all MUST pay…..plus it was foisted upon us without the use of Congress (our representation)…..ergo we are taxed without representation.

Do you get it now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What If Billionaires Paid Taxes?

I know a fanciful idea that probably will go nowhere….as much as I dislike AI the author of this piece asked AI that very question and here is what it responded…

The tax system feels upside down sometimes. You work a regular job, and a big chunk of your paycheck goes to taxes. Meanwhile, you hear stories about billionaires paying almost nothing. So, I asked ChatGPT: What would actually happen if the ultra-wealthy paid the same tax rates as everyone else?

It turns out, at least according to ChatGPT, the current system isn’t just unfair. More than that, the country could be getting hundreds of billions of dollars every year if things changed.

ChatGPT started with some shocking numbers about current tax rates. According to research from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the top 400 wealthiest Americans paid an effective tax rate of about 23.8% between 2018 and 2020.

Meanwhile, the average American paid around 30%, and high earners who mostly rely on wages paid closer to 45%. In some years, the richest 400 families actually paid less than the bottom 50% of households.

The most extreme example ChatGPT cited was from Oxfam, which found that in 2021, the wealthiest 400 families paid just 8.2% in federal individual income tax compared to a national average of 13%.

So, the people with the most money are paying the lowest rates. ChatGPT explained this happens because of capital gains preferences, tax loopholes and sophisticated tax planning that regular people can’t access.

When I asked ChatGPT to run the numbers on what equalizing tax rates could raise, the amounts were, quite frankly, staggering.

The most conservative estimate suggested that making billionaires pay taxes at the same rate as working-class Americans could generate $500 billion to $1 trillion per year in additional revenue.

Other scenarios were even more dramatic. If the top 1% paid just 10 percentage points more in taxes, that could raise $300 billion annually or $3 trillion over 10 years.

A more aggressive approach like raising billionaire tax rates by 25 percentage points could yield $800 billion or more per year. Yes, you read that number correctly.

ChatGPT also looked at specific policy proposals. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax could generate $113 billion annually, while Sen. Ron Wyden’s billionaire income tax might add $56 billion per year.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/taxes/tax-laws/asked-chatgpt-what-would-happen-if-billionaires-paid-taxes-at-same-rate-as-working-class

A fascinating answer…..

Personally I think that everyone should pay the same taxes regardless….since corporations are considered humans now they too should pay the same tax as we on all income.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Is Elmo Crapping In His Moccasins?

By now we all know what a douche bag Musk is….even the allegations of drug use….but while in DC he snuggled up to Donny’s crotch and did all the stuff that was needed to make sure that all his enterprises would be very profitable and then he split while the going was good.

Now that Elmo was left the world of Donny he has started bad mouthing the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, tax tax cut bill that is being sold as something good for us all (a steaming pile of horse manure is the best way to describe it)…..

Elmo is rubbing the cobra’s butt with irritant about this bill….

Last week, as he prepared to exit his DC role, Elon Musk told CBS News that he was “disappointed” in the Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House to pay for President Trump’s domestic agenda. That comment was restrained compared to the criticism he leveled on Tuesday:

  • “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” he wrote on his X platform, reports CNBC. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
  • Musk’s big complaint is that the bill would add to the budget deficit, and he cited a figure of $2.5 trillion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the spending package—now under consideration in the Senate—would add $2.3 trillion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, reports Fox Business. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, puts the figure at closer to $5 trillion. It’s why he’s promising to vote against the measure in the Senate, per Fox News.

 

Why the change in heart from this tool?

These Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves

That is the common lie told whenever someone wants to cut taxes….they never pay for themnselves and in most cases have contributed to the rise in our deficit.

And now Donny and his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill is spreading the same manure always spread when taxes are considered….but is it manure?   Will they truly pay for themselves?

The answer is a resounding ….NO!

An analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the tax cuts at the center of Republicans’ massive reconciliation package would do little to boost economic growth—and would not come anywhere close to paying for themselves.

The JCT report, published hours after Republicans pushed the bill through the House, estimates that the tax cuts would boost the nation’s average annual economic growth by 0.03 percentage points over the next decade—hardly the explosion of growth that GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump have promised.

Economic activity spurred by the tax breaks—which are largely an extension of soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts—would increase federal revenues by roughly $103 billion between 2025 and 2034, according to JCT.

That would barely put a dent in the overall projected cost of the tax cuts, bringing it down to $3.7 trillion from $3.8 trillion.

…

A separate analysis published Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of the Republican bill’s tax provisions would flow disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans.

“The $121 billion in net tax cuts going to the richest 1% next year would exceed the amount going to the entire bottom 60% of taxpayers (about $90 billion),” said ITEP, whose analysis did not factor in the impact of the legislation’s unparalleled cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance, which would deliver a major blow to the household resources of lower-income Americans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jct-republican-tax-cuts

But not to worry…..the GOP has found a way to make this problem more palatable to the more ignorant out there…..the bill that would make tips tax free….what little help that would bring will not offset the bigger deal of massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

Tax cuts does little to help the deficit so they must attack the programs that assist people in trouble….just so people like Bezos gets a free hand.

Stop believing the BS and start looking at the larger picture these tax cuts will do you no good.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is The “Liberation Day” Unraveling?

Trump’s tariffs…..chaotic, confusing and incomprehensible.

Yes, I write a lot about tariffs.  I am no economic expert but the training I have had leads me to write about the ill-conceived economic plans around tariffs.

The end game of tariffs is that the consumer foots the bill imposed by idiots that use tariffs to further their own wallet expansion.

In the first few weeks of his administration Donny arbitrarily hit almost every country with some sort of tariffs, ranging from 125% to about 19%, and sine those awful days he has steadily walked back some those tariffs and now he has a new plan….

President Donald Trump has declared that the U.S. will be independently setting new tariff rates on several trading partners, bypassing the need for individual agreements.

What Happened: Trump announced during a meeting with business executives in the United Arab Emirates that new tariffs would be introduced within the next two to three weeks. Trump stated that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will be informing the relevant parties by “sending letters” about the new tariffs and the associated costs for conducting business in the United States, reported the Financial Times.

Trump noted that while there were “150 countries” interested in striking deals, it was not practical to meet with all of them. His administration has already reduced many of the tariffs announced on April 2 to 10% for a 90-day period.

(benzinga.com)

So the “Liberation Day” plan is a bust and now they are rethinking their stupidity and coming up with a new plan…..

On Friday, Trump claimed about 150 countries would soon receive letters “essentially telling” them of new US duty rates on their exports. Many learned of similar rates last month, only for the plan to change in a matter of days.

A new chapter, without pomp or ceremony, is now under way. What this one will entail – or how long it lasts – is anyone’s guess.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/trump-liberation-day-tariff-walk-back

We wait for the release of this generic letter to see how it will effect our economy and as usual they details are kept from the public for we do not need to know where our income will go….we should just take the word of proven liars….well you may but I refuse to do so.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Tariff Stuff

I know I spend a lot of time writing about the tariffs and their effects on this country that is because there is a wealth of misconceptions about these lame economic moves….for one no country pays these tariffs….YOU pay for them every time you go shopping.

With that said…..

Remember when Amazon stated that they would be labeling their products with the cost to the consumer and Donny went batcrap crazy and called Bezos to have the idea squashed and it was?

Personally I thought it was a good idea but Donny does not want you to know how badly you will be getting screwed….but guess what a majority thinks the Amazon idea is a great one….

YouGov released a new poll this week on Americans’ views of President Donald Trump, his handling of the economy, and their optimism for the future. The poll found a whopping 75% of Americans believe that Trump’s tariffs will increase prices, and a strong majority wants those additional costs explained to them on the packaging.

The poll of 1,850 adult U.S. citizens, conducted between May 2nd and 5th, also found that “Majorities of Democrats and Republicans think Trump’s tariffs will lead to price increases. Among Republicans, the share who think tariffs will raise prices ‘a lot’ has increased 8 percentage points in the past two weeks, to 22% from 14%.”

Additionally, 46% of respondents said they believe that Trump’s tariffs “are harmful to the economy and consumers, with no real long-term benefits” – as opposed to 38% who said the tariffs “may cause short-term economic pain, but lead to long-term economic growth.”

But yet there are those that want to idolize Donny and his ignorance and defend these ‘taxes’ on the rest of us.

Donny has waffled on several of his tariffs and what did that achieve?

While the various tariff rollbacks and pauses have been welcomed by businesses, the respite has not removed uncertainty entirely. Brief pauses in tariffs are not sufficient for many companies to make longer-term investment or supply chain decisions.

There are fears that the uncertainty is taking a toll on the US economy. A Bloomberg poll of economists put the chances of a recession next year at almost 50-50, the news agency reported on Monday.

The farmer will most likely get hit hard…..plus could endanger our food supply…..

Specifically, while Trump publicly proclaims that he stands with farmers, his tariff war with China stands to rob producers of their markets.  Since Trump’s last term, China has already been looking to countries like Brazil for soybeans as the US has proven an unreliable partner.  Adding insult to injury, unexpectedly cancelling government contracts with thousands around the country early in his term placed undue stress on farmers who already have to contend with what extreme weather events throw their way.

Now, with the details of the UK-US trade deal becoming known, the signal – that is, the truth – of the Trump administration’s vision for agriculture is coming into view. To the point, not unlike how US agriculture has been directed for the past few decades, it is becoming clear that this administration will prioritize exports. The problem with this vision is that, even if it generates short-term profits, it endangers our long-term national food security by dangerously further internationalizing our agricultural system.

…

Trump’s efforts to undo the previous administration’s policies set up our food system for disruption and crisis, subjecting farmers to the uncertainties of international markets and developments elsewhere. If there is a signal with the noise that Trump is making with our food system, then this is it – farmers better get ready for a volatile next few years and more bailouts, as operations will continue to go under. Overall, Trump’s nationalist rhetoric amounts to little, as our food system becomes more global, increasingly made vulnerable to dynamics outside our control.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/15/trumps-trade-deals-endanger-farmers-and-our-food-system/

Prices will head up….Walmart has made a statement and the prez has leveled his ire on the company….

President Trump’s tariffs are just “too high,” according to Walmart, which says it will raise prices, including on some food items, in response. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday that tariffs on China are pushing up the costs of electronics and toys, while tariffs on Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombia are increasing the costs of some foods, reports CNBC. “The higher tariffs will result in higher prices,” McMillon said on an earnings call, per CNN. “We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.”

Customers should expect price hikes beginning later this month, per CNN. “You’ll begin to see that, likely towards the tail end of this month, and then certainly much more in June,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey tells CNBC. He admits this is “not good for consumers,” per Reuters, but stresses the US is dependent on certain imports, whose prices have climbed dramatically under Trump’s tariffs. “The magnitude and speed at which these prices are coming to us is somewhat unprecedented in history,” he tells the Wall Street Journal. Though Walmart welcomed the recent deal to lower tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%, it said the remaining level is still “too high,” per CNBC.

Such statements risk Trump’s ire. The White House attacked Amazon’s reported plan to show the added cost of tariffs on some items as a “hostile and political act,” while Trump threatened a 100% tariff on Mattel’s toys after the company announced it would raise prices in response to tariffs last week. Walmart appears confident in its position, however. Of the trade war, Rainey told analysts, “We are equipped to manage this as well or better than other retailers,” per Investing.com. Walmart continues to expect annual sales to climb between 3% and 4% for the fiscal year ending in January, per Reuters.

He be pissed!

Will he threaten Walmart and make them change their tone as he did with Amazon?

You decide.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”