@
eMortal 1. Tariffs:
You're right—tariffs aim to protect domestic industries by making imports more expensive. However, they often have unintended consequences like retaliatory tariffs, increased costs for consumers, and inefficiencies in protected industries. The execution can sometimes feel more like a blunt instrument than a surgical tool.
2. Housing Market:
The housing crisis is a major factor in economic instability. Skyrocketing rents and home prices put immense pressure on workers, leading to wage demands that businesses, especially those reliant on low-margin operations, struggle to meet. Instead of addressing structural issues like affordable housing, many companies offshored jobs to cut costs, which hollowed out local economies.
3. Labor Offshoring:
CEOs and shareholders prioritized short-term profits, often ignoring the long-term societal impacts of offshoring. This weakened the middle class, reduced domestic consumption power, and created a feedback loop of economic inequality.
4. Housing Regulation:
Tight regulations on speculative real estate investment could stabilize the market. Incentivizing long-term ownership over short-term flipping and discouraging absentee landlordism could help. Countries like Germany have models worth examining, with strong tenant protections and less speculative housing markets.
5. Oil Prices & Broader Impact:
Oil prices affect not just transportation but also construction costs, heating, and industrial production. A volatile energy market feeds into housing costs. Transitioning to renewable energy could decouple housing from oil price shocks and create more stable economic conditions.
6. A “Newer Deal”:
You’re channeling that Rooseveltian energy! A modern New Deal would need to tackle climate change, housing, labor rights, and digital infrastructure. Where’s our 21st-century Teddy or FDR? Maybe it’s not about one leader but collective political will. The think tanks are out there—Roosevelt Institute, Economic Policy Institute—but they need public momentum to push their ideas into action.
