From “U.S. consumers will take most of the hit from tariff costs: Goldman Sachs – Analysts at the firm said U.S. consumers will eventually take on 67% of tariff-related costs” by Hannah Parker at Quartz: “Through June, about 22% of tariff costs have been passed onto consumers, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis shared with Bloomberg. However, that number will rise to 67% if tariffs follow the same course as years prior, the firm said…Goldman analysts said in the report that the CPE will rise to 3.2% year-on-year in December. They added that when taking away the additional costs from tariffs, the inflation rate would have been 2.4%. So far, the analysts said tariffs have increased this index by 0.2% and expect it to rise 0.16% for July and 0.5% for the rest of 2025…Tariff-induced hikes to the rate of inflation come as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly rejected President Donald Trump’s demands to lower interest rates. In the president’s most recent move against Powell, he appointed a fellow critic to a key seat at the central bank…Goldman analysts said in the report that U.S. businesses have absorbed about 64% of tariff-related costs. Companies like Apple reported a $800 million hit from tariffs and reported tariff-related costs of over $1 billion in their respective earnings last quarter. The analysts expect that, moving forward, companies will pay less than 10% for tariff costs. They added that international exporters have taken on about 14% of tariff costs through June, but that rate could increase to 25%.”
The The Hill, Flip Timotija reports that “One-third say family’s finances have worsened,” and notes, “About one-in-three U.S. adults say their family’s finances have gotten worse in the past year, while another 40 percent said it roughly stayed the same, according to a new poll…The latest Yahoo Finance/Marist Poll survey, released Monday, found that 33 percent of U.S. adults said their family’s finances have deteriorated in the last year. Another 27 percent argued it has gotten better while 40 percent stated that their family’s financial conditions stayed the same…Older generations, nearly four-in-ten of Gen X and 35 percent of Baby Boomers, are more likely to say their finances have gotten worse. Roughly 29 percent each of millennials and Gen Z said the same, the poll shows…Nearly half of households, 47 percent, who are earning below $50,000 annually, said their finances are declining. Twice as many male respondents, 36 percent, said their finances have gotten better over the past year compared to 18 percent of women…Around 45 percent of adults said the cost of living in their area is either not very affordable, 36 percent, or not affordable at all, 9 percent. More than half, 55 percent, said their area is affordable — with 11 percent of respondents saying “very” affordable and 44 percent choosing just “affordable,” according to the poll…The Yahoo/Marist survey was conducted from June 13-17 among 2,575 adults. The margin of error is 2.1 percentage points.”
In his NYT opinion essay, “Democrats Delivered Millions to Texarkana. It Didn’t Matter One Bit,” Thomas B. Edsall writes: “On Aug. 8 of this year, John Sides, a political scientist at Vanderbilt, wrote on the blog Good Authority, “Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, there was a notion that a politician can win votes by delivering benefits to voters — also known as ‘deliverism.’”…In practice, the Biden administration’s deliverism strategy failed to deliver politically, both across the nation and especially — and emblematically — in Texarkana…In 2020, Texarkana, which is made up of Miller County, Ark., and Bowie County, Texas, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump — 72.3 percent to 27.7 percent for Biden, a 44.6-point margin. In 2024, despite the growth of green industry and economic improvement during the Biden years, Trump beat Kamala Harris in the Texarkana counties with 75.4 percent of the vote and 24.6 percent for Harris, an immense 50.8-point margin…These voting patterns show how durable Trump’s core support is despite his limitations and his falling poll numbers…William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has spent much of his career exploring the strengths and weaknesses of democracy, has a book coming out in September, “Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power ofPolitical Speech.” He summarized the main arguments of the book in “Liberalism Without Illusions,” an essay in the summer edition of “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.” Galston contends that much of contemporary politics is shaped by a struggle between competing forces in human nature: Rational self-interest does not always drive human events; the passions matter, and evil is real. Economics isn’t everything, or even the “base” of everything. Culture and religion have retained — and will not lose — their independent power to shape understanding and motivate action.”
The Boston Review is running “The Dead End of Checks and Balances,” by Lisa L. Miller and featuring responsees from eight writers. Subtitled “Far from the cure to Trumpian authoritarianism, the U.S. constitutional system is driving our democratic decline,” the discussion includes the following excerpt: “Far from serving our republic well, America’s unusual system of checks and balances has paralyzed it—contributing to the very authoritarianism we now face rather than protecting us from it. However well-meaning these venerable invocations, doubling down on America’s alleged constitutional virtues at this moment will only entrench the dysfunction that got us here. If our aim is to safeguard democracy, these dangerous times call for a long-overdue reckoning with the system’s deep vices—and a clear vision for overcoming them…Indeed, urging a return to normal misses the point that the normal order is widely perceived as a problem. Majorities of Americans across the political spectrum have long understood that their system of government doesn’t serve them well. Institutional obstacles at all levels empower elite minorities to safeguard their own interests and block popular policies that would broadly serve the American people, from universal health care to a higher minimum wage. Of course, Trump’s attacks on political institutions have little to do with constraining the power of elites or advancing such policies; on the contrary, with Elon Musk at the head of DOGE, they are advancing rank corruption and kleptocracy for the benefit of the ultrawealthy and extreme ideologues. But Trump does tap into the sentiment that our institutions are broken. Acknowledging the flaws in our system does not mean endorsing his, or any president’s, unlimited power. Nor does it mean there is no form of checks and balances that can serve American democracy. Rather, it clarifies the necessity and urgency of reforming government so it responds better to the needs of ordinary people.” It’s a provocative notion. Read more here.
