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It was very obvious that the promise of President Trump which he made prior to being elected, with regards to inflation, was going to be more challenging and a great lesson learned here is, believe not in the words of a politician who is seeking power, but believe in what's physically possible.
Because you cannot simply declare that the price of goods will decrease, and it automatically happens. We're in January 29 of 2026, a couple days till the end of the first month, there is still little indication of grocery prices coming down to earth, which presumes to be what everyone predicted when the price of groceries was skyrocketing, and yet very few wanted to listen.
Yes, the price of crude oil has decreased, but the costs for beef and coffee continue to exceed last year. Part of this is the detriment of tariffs, which act as a tax and they increase the cost of living for everyday items. It really doesn't do much good.
The federal government has proposed providing tax refunds to be able to assist with food costs. If the federal government provides tax refunds for groceries, I just want to ask if the federal government is indirectly admitting that the tariffs are to blame for the increased cost of living in the first place.
Electricity is also not cheaper, so that just means no increase in crude oil production will result in decreased prices for electricity if the demand for crude oil continues to increase.
The Federal Reserve maintained the current interest rate yesterday, January 28, with the inflation remaining above 3%.
Stats source from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve stated that any decrease in rates would create further inflation. The White House has requested that the Federal Reserve lower rates to allow the President to carry out his economic agenda, but the Federal Reserve are still concerned that reducing interest rates would result in a continuation or acceleration of inflationary pressure from the tariffs and excess government expenditures.
This is no longer just a crisis that masses of people will become concerned about, it is now a situation of having to pay more for everything than you would normally expect to pay. The Presidential Administration is attempting to preserve the viability of U.S. businesses while also maintaining price stability and that's one reason why they're in a difficult position, because you cannot have both exist without a great deal of price volatility from one side or the other or both.