That means $1 BILLION just for one quarter just for one retailer was extracted from US consumers
Imagine with Walmart and Amazon on top of that
At what point does the US economy implode?
How can this be sustained with also a BILLION per day being extracted from the economy via the extra $1 per gallon in fuel costs?
Another question is where the heck is all this money going because it's sure not being paid in taxes back to pay the debt
tiahura•22m ago
What's the basis for concluding that is was extracted from US consumers? Is there good data on tax incidence for this situation?
jfengel•13m ago
The tariff fiasco was never a threat to the economy. $200 billion is a drop in the bucket of a $30 trillion dollar debt. It's not great for consumers, but inflation in 2025 was still under 3%.
The bigger threat from the tariff fiasco was the loss of confidence. It was a mind-numbingly stupid thing to do, and that's what edging us closer to the economic catastrophe.
But we've been edging for decades, and it's hard to tell whether we're at the end. The recent bond rates over 5% mean that people are demanding more to lend the government money, and if they can't get that under control the debt will spiral exponentially.
(BTW: some of that $1 billion will make its way to the government as taxes. But it's a drop in the bucket.)
jfengel•23m ago
No need to editorialize the headline. Original:
US retail giant receives $1bn boost from tariff refunds
The editorialized version is also incorrect: their income was $30 billion. The extra $1 billion doubles their profit, of $1.04 billion.
ck2•26m ago
Imagine with Walmart and Amazon on top of that
At what point does the US economy implode?
How can this be sustained with also a BILLION per day being extracted from the economy via the extra $1 per gallon in fuel costs?
Another question is where the heck is all this money going because it's sure not being paid in taxes back to pay the debt
tiahura•22m ago
jfengel•13m ago
The bigger threat from the tariff fiasco was the loss of confidence. It was a mind-numbingly stupid thing to do, and that's what edging us closer to the economic catastrophe.
But we've been edging for decades, and it's hard to tell whether we're at the end. The recent bond rates over 5% mean that people are demanding more to lend the government money, and if they can't get that under control the debt will spiral exponentially.
(BTW: some of that $1 billion will make its way to the government as taxes. But it's a drop in the bucket.)