No. 73 of 108

August 25, 2025

Increased tariffs are bringing a windfall into the U.S. treasury. Who is paying for the tariffs? Economists, researchers, businesses and consumers are projecting, observing, and figuring it out. There is a growing consensus (except from the Administration) that the country is in a “sneakflation” phase. Prices are slowly rising as increases are shared along the supply line. The world’s largest retailer said prices are rising every week because of tariffs but they will keep prices down “for as long as we can”. Sellers are managing expectations while slowly passing on the cost, hoping to avoid sharp decline in sales. The first to feel the impacts are Americans living paycheck to paycheck who reach limits of juggling and absorption faster, and small businesses who face a keep-prices-as-they-are-or-close scenario.

---

Far from thrivingly interdependent, we are dependent. One of the ways we can tell is things happen and there are a small number of absolute winners and a gigantanormous number of folx left footing the bill, slowly, or in a sudden. Things happen, and the impacts ripple out through the many places and hands, needs and wants. No one is the final catcher of the ball hazard-ly thrown. Far from thrivingly interdependent, our paying attention to how all of this is currently working gives us a wealth of knowledge of how we may twist, turn, repurpose, reset and set a different course. Many communities, all at once, each one at a time.