It's grimly fascinating that Biden lost so much support for inflation that was largely not under his control, so we replaced him with someone pushing policies that will raise inflation. Will we learn anything this time?
I'm not a fan of Trump but I don't think you can let Biden off the hook on inflation either: Biden should've reversed course on tariffs, and not added his own, but didn't - likely a political calculus to avoid appearing "soft on China". Lifting tariffs would've immediately provided relief to both businesses and consumers.
They do have a cooling effect on the economy though, so perhaps the other motivation for keeping them around was to prevent run-away inflation. While Tariffs can raise the cost of goods, they do not in-and-of-themselves create inflation unless you attempt to pump money back into the economy to repair the damage being caused by your tariffs.
This whole fear of being "soft on" whichever perceived enemy is probably the cultural element driving us deeper into isolationism.
We get into fights with a family member and don't want to look soft so we punch them back and then avoid them. We create more and more distance and relationships fall apart and then we get more lonely.
So as it hurts personal relationships, it hurts political-economic relationships. We want to punish China with tariffs, and it's like punching our enemy in the face and hurting our own hand. And then they punch us back and hurt us and their own hand. Self- and other-defeating attempts at solutions.
I'd say the weaker approach is to punch and/or run. The stronger approach takes the punches and still tries to work with the other person, recognizing how we help each other.
