It's anecdotal, but I cannot remember a few month period where more businesses have announced they are closing their doors. It seems like there's a new announcement every couple days right now.
Electronics manufacturers who cited tariffs. A Grandfather clock company that employed hundreds and had existed for over a hundred years. Auto parts. Machine chops. Bars. Restaurants. Breweries.
And with every layoff, a post on my town's Reddit or Nextdoor page and debate. The CEOs and owners are citing tariffs and the costs and uncertainty associated with them, some are saying the economy is faltering. And then it's people from the left correctly pointing out what and who is responsible, and then people from the right saying, "those businesses would have closed anyway." All businesses go through ups and downs, but if you're in a little bit of a down and all the sudden out of the blue your costs for materials spike, it can absolutely sink you. That's what were seeing, a lot of companies who were having down years or maybe who were invested in next year are closing their doors because they simply couldn't withstand the shock of tariffs. And the restaurants and breweries seem to cite that the demand just isn't there all the sudden, people aren't spending money. People are terrified as they watch their country descend into fascism, people are mitigating their risk by trying to save.
I don't know where the economy is heading for sure, but the numbers are showing up bad and this feels dark, like worse than the 2008 Bush meltdown bad. I am darned near religious about keeping politics and finances separate, people missed out on massive stock market gains under Trump before because they let politics influence their money decisions, but this feels like a deep deep recession is building.
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