Fears of a recession are being talked about by both consumers and economists. Trump, who promised to bring down prices on "day one" - well it's been about 45 days and prices have not only gone down, they've gone up - and plan to go even higher. The once robust jobs market is getting bashed with a hammer by a ketamine-addled South African emerald heir, and private sector employees are now flooding the already impossible-to-navigate "LiknedIn Economy." In other words, things are bad. It feels like every day is the worst day, so far.
On Monday, the Atlanta Federal Reserve predicted that the U.S. economy would shrink by 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2025, reinforcing fears that the country may be on the brink of a recession.
The term "Trumpcession" has gained traction as market volatility, inflation concerns, and aggressive tariff policies, caused by Trump and his administration, raise alarms about economic stability. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index recently fell by seven points to 98.3, with the expectations index dropping below the warning threshold of 80 which usually signals a recession ahead.
The decline in confidence isn't just affecting low-income earners. As rising inflation expectations and concerns about future employment weigh heavily on peoples's minds, middle incom earners are feeling the most pressure to their pockets. Inflation projections have risen sharply, with year-ahead forecasts estimating a 6.2 percent increase in prices, up from the current 5.2 percent.
Oddly enough, major financial institutions that are led by our oligarch future overlords remain cautiously optimistic. Solomon stated that the probability of a U.S. recession remains "very small" despite global trade uncertainty.
But in the same breath CEO's, like Target's CEO Brian Cornell is already telling consumers to expect price hikes from tariffs in a matter of days. “If there’s a 25 percent tariff, those prices will go up,” he added.
Maybe they need us to keep spending as normal to fuel their capitalism machine that relies on our labor and money to work.
Trump has made tariffs a central part of his absolutely, historically bad economic policy and said he plans to create an “External Revenue Service” to oversee the duties. This dumb, unnecessary pipe dream is based, of course, on his repeated and inaccurate claim that tariffs are paid by foreign countries.
As a reminder, tariffs are a tax paid by American companies, with the costs passed on to consumers.
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