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A Vintage Comeback! How Gen Z is Breathing New Life into Film Photography (and What it Means for Kodak)


Story by Ángeles Acosta • 2w • 3 min read

The Allure of Analog: Why Young People are Ditching Digital

For a generation raised on instant gratification and perfected social media feeds, film offers something different. It’s a deliberate, slow process that requires patience and a certain level of commitment. There’s no instant preview screen, no endless filters, and no easy do-overs. This constraint is, for many, the very essence of its appeal. The unique aesthetic—the grain, the light leaks, the authentic color shifts—is something digital simply can’t replicate. It’s a tangible memory, a physical object you can hold, share, and cherish. The excitement of dropping off a roll of film and the anticipation of seeing the developed photos is an experience many Gen Zers are discovering for the first time. They’re finding joy in the imperfections and the genuine, unedited moments that film captures. This analog renaissance is taking place not just in photography but in music as well, with vinyl record sales surging to their highest levels in decades.

Kodak’s Rocky Road: A Story of Innovation and Missed Opportunities

Kodak’s story is a classic tale of a giant brought low by its own hubris. For decades, the company was synonymous with photography. In fact, one of their own engineers, Steven Sasson, invented the world’s first digital camera in 1975. However, fearing that the new technology would cannibalize their lucrative film business, Kodak executives chose to sideline the invention.  This critical misstep opened the door for Japanese companies like Sony and Canon to dominate the burgeoning digital market. By the time Kodak finally embraced the digital transition, it was too little, too late. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012, shedding its consumer-focused operations and reinventing itself as a much smaller, business-to-business enterprise focusing on commercial printing and other industrial technologies.

The New Hope: A Second Chance for Film?

Today, the growing demand for film has presented Kodak with an unexpected second chance. The company is one of the few remaining major producers of photographic film, and this renewed interest has given them a lifeline. However, the path ahead is not without challenges. Kodak faces significant financial struggles, and while the company is reporting a modest increase in film sales, it’s a far cry from the glory days. Furthermore, the supply chain for film chemicals and paper is complex and fragile, and meeting the sudden spike in demand can be difficult. The cost of film and developing is also a barrier for many, making it a niche hobby rather than a mainstream activity.

The Future is Blurry (But Full of Potential)

While the renewed interest in film isn’t enough to make Kodak the powerhouse it once was, it provides a fascinating case study in how consumer trends can shift unexpectedly. The company is now in a unique position to capitalize on its legacy. By embracing its core strength—the production of high-quality film—Kodak can establish itself as a leader in this growing niche market. The challenge lies in balancing its legacy business with its more modern, industrial pursuits. For now, Gen Z’s love for all things vintage has given the old film giant a new lease on life, proving that some stories, even those told in black and white, are worth a second look.

Trump has bought $100 million in bonds since taking office. His portfolio is poised to get a boost if the Fed cuts rates.


By William Edwards

Aug 26, 2025, 4:45 AM CT

New disclosures show that President Trump has bought roughly $100 million of bonds since starting his term.

These purchases could gain from Fed rate cuts, benefiting Trump’s portfolio value.

The president has been pressuring the Fed for months to lower interest rates.

While President Donald Trump has grabbed headlines for his meme-stock holdings and forays into crypto, he’s also been steadily amassing a large stake in good, old-fashioned bonds.

This is according to a US Office of Government Ethics filing from August 19, which showed that Trump has made more than $100 million in bond purchases since starting his second term. The purchases span state, municipal, and corporate bonds with a wide range of maturity dates and yields.

While administration officials have said the transactions are managed completely independent of Trump, it’s still relatively unprecedented for an active president to be making these types of moves at all. He’s the first commander-in-chief in more than 50 years to not at least have personal holdings put into a blind trust while in office.

Given that bond prices normally rise when yields fall, any decline in the latter would increase the overall value of the president’s portfolio. Those yields are likely to decline if the Federal Reserve cuts rates — something Trump has not-so-subtly been imploring it to do for months.

A few caveats: The purchases make up a small portion of Trump’s net worth, which Forbes estimates at around $6 billion. It’s also unclear how Trump’s bond-purchase activity compares to previous periods when he wasn’t in office.

Overall, it’s difficult to know the exact degree to which Trump would benefit from reductions in the fed funds rate. The benchmark rate impacts short-duration yields the most, while factors like inflation impact longer-duration bonds more. Price action on long-duration bonds specifically in response to rate cuts can also be hard to measure because long-term rates can move in advance of cuts.

Trump has called for the central bank to slash rates by 300 basis points, to the 1.25%-to-1.5% range. He has repeatedly pressured Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates. But Powell has run his own race and stuck to the Fed’s internal calculus, even going as far as to say the potentially inflationary effect of Trump’s tariffs was part of the FOMC’s decision to keep rates unchanged at recent meetings.

Trump’s bonds — and the bond market overall — may not have much longer to wait for another rate cut. Investors are currently pricing in an 84% chance of a 25-basis-point reduction at the September Fed meeting, following a weak July jobs report that saw large downward revisions.

For his part, Powell appeared to open the door to a September rate cut during remarks at last week’s Jackson Hole Symposium. Upon the release of his prepared statement, stocks soared instantly, while government bond yields tumbled.

Governor Pritzker Had Perfect Response to Donald Trumps National Guard Threat


JB Pritzker; Charlie Sykes.

JB Pritzker; Charlie Sykes.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 26 episode of “Deadline: White House.”

On Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker fired back at Donald Trump after the president threatened to expand his federal takeover and send National Guard troops into Chicago, which he referred to as a “killing field.”

I urge people to read the transcript or watch the video of Pritzker’s speech, because frankly, that is the way it’s done.

Pritzker didn’t dismiss concerns about crime in the city. “Not one person here today will claim we have solved all crime in Chicago, nor can that be said of any major American metro area,” he said. Instead, the governor turned those concerns on Trump, listing the ways the president and his fellow Republicans have made Chicago less safe for its residents:

If Donald Trump was actually serious about fighting crime in cities like Chicago, he, along with his congressional Republicans, would not be cutting over $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants nationally, including cutting $158 million in funding to Illinois for violence prevention programs that deploy trained outreach workers to de-escalate conflict on our streets; cutting $71 million in law enforcement grants to Illinois, direct money for police departments through programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, the State and Local Antiterrorism Training Program, and the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative; cutting $137 million in child protection measures in Illinois that protect our kids against abuse and neglect.

Pritzker put it succinctly: “Trump is defunding the police.”

Not only is that true, it’s great messaging — and Democrats should follow the governor’s lead. Democrats must make it clear to the American people that they take crime very seriously. But they also have to show voters what’s happening in Chicago and that what will likely happen in other Democratic-run cities across the country isn’t really about crime. It’s about the performative retribution of Trump — it’s about politics.

This is a president who is acting as if he has no limits. He is destroying constitutional guardrails and violating the norms of democracy almost daily. The question now is: How much damage can he do before he’s stopped?

One of the major problems that we’ve faced in dealing with Trump has been a failure of imagination. How far would he go? How bad could it get? What would he do with the unchecked powers of the presidency?

In real time, we are seeing what he is capable of doing. We’re seeing it play out in Washington, D.C., and we may soon see it in Chicago. Trump is giving us a brutal reality check about how fragile our constitutional republic really is.

Which brings me to another important line from Pritzker’s speech: “If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.”

We must understand the magnitude of the moment. All of this may feel like some sort of dystopian nightmare, but it is literally the times that we are living in, and every American must open their eyes and see what’s happening.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

Trumplestilskin:Dollymop!


I am hoping the many people who reelected the current oval office resident are paying attention since they are most responsible for the extreme changes in our Democracy! The notion that he would make America Great Again is more like making America “Grate”. since he was played by the Russian strongman that he so wanted to emulate, the silence is deafening except for his sycophantic mouthpieces who in many cases shoot from the lip. If we are to survive this abominable administration, we must show up during the next election and get some real representatives who are brave enough to hold the line against his eccentricities.

There is no greater power than the power of a well-informed voter. Party is not a factor in these elections as all politicians lie! We can only determine who to elect by what they do. e.g. Ted Cruz who leaves town when crucial votes are needed- definitive no reelection!

The current atmosphere is reminiscent of the reconstruction era and the resulting mismanagement afterwards. Gold paint does not impart value to the object painted it just covers the dirt! Lest we forget the events of 1939 when one man convinced his countrymen that they were the superior race and we should govern all others. This brought about a massive buildup of war material which enriched the lives of the then downtrodden German populace while the “leader” plotted war plans on his neighbors. During that time a Russian dictator was busily committing pogroms and other crimes on their populace, these two menaces joined forces and began their “conquest” of the rest of Europe but notably the Russians did not actively join the “war” against Europe immediately but eagerly participated (against Germany) when the German warlord attacked his country.

All of this to show that we have a weak leader whose rhetoric is stronger (albeit) irrational than his abilities to deliver while having his every random thought published and often acted upon by his Cadre of staffers lead by the modern version of Joseph Goebbels (aka) Stephen Miller. It is within our power (voters) to make a correction in the upcoming election.

They’re worried’: Texas Republicans ‘They’re worried’: Texas Republicans admit they may have screwed up redistricting plan.


Tom Boggioni-Raw Story

State Representative Matt Morgan (R-TX) holds a map of the new proposed congressional districts in Texas, during a legislative session as Democratic lawmakers, who left the state to deny Republicans the opportunity to redraw the state’s 38 congressional districts, begin returning to the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, U.S. August 20, 2025. REUTERS/Sergio Flores

Less than 24 hours after Texas Republicans shoved the redistricting plan across the finish line over Democratic objections, some GOP lawmakers are having a bit of buyer’s remorse that they may have gained some seats in U.S. House of Representatives but put others in play.

According to conservative journalist David Drucker, the plan was to give Republicans a shot at picking up an expected five House seats in the 2026 midterms, but the map, as now written, may put some other districts in play.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the Dispatch journalist was prompted by host Joe Scarborough with, “One of the main consequences I see from gerrymandering is you get the people in the safe seats, and I won’t even mention their names, but you get people in the safest seats, they say the most, especially in the Republican side, they say the most outrageous things, and they raise a ton of money. The more insulting, the more outrageous, the more vulgar, the crazier, the more insane they sound, because they’re safe in their district, the more money they raise nationwide, the more their profile goes up.”

According to Drucker, “Well, we’ve seen that over the past decade and a half, at least, because all the action, Joe is in the primaries, right? I mean, how often are we discussing a topic here? And you guys ask me, what do Republicans think, and my answer is usually they don’t want to rock the boat ahead of primary season, because the only place they’re going to have a competitive race is in a Republican primary.” After discussing the dilemma Democrats are facing, he added,” Look what’s happening now with the gerrymandering of seats … on the one hand, we could, in the short term have some more competitive districts, right? If you look at that Texas map, some is dark red, a lot of it is shaded light red. And that means if this atmosphere goes against the president and his party next year, I’ve had Republicans in Texas tell me they’re worried [that] instead of gaining five seats, you can have ten competitive seats, and you could end up losing seats

Trump bought more than $100 million in bonds since January, filings show


NBC News

Steve Kopack

1.7k

President Donald Trump has purchased at least $103 million worth of corporate and municipal bonds since he took office in January, according to new filings from the Office of Government Ethics.

The documents, released late Tuesday, show that Trump began the bond-buying spree one day after he was sworn in on Jan. 20 and that it includes debt sold by companies, local governments and entities that could be directly affected by his sweeping agenda. All told, Trump made about 690 purchases from Jan. 21 through Aug. 1.

The active trading by a president of the United States is unprecedented, and it puts Trump in a direct position to benefit — or lose out — if any of the entities that own the bonds he has purchased succeed or fail. It’s also another example of Trump’s pursuing business endeavors and transactions to increase his wealth in office.

“Ultimately, the president is not involved in these transactions,” a senior administration official told NBC News. “They’re managed completely independently of him.”

On Jan. 21, Trump purchased a bond belonging to the New York Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. A week later, he purchased another handful of bonds over consecutive days. Those bonds belong to various municipal hospital facilities, airports, regional development funds and school districts from Florida to Alaska.

The filings do not provide exact purchase amounts but instead show a broad dollar range for each transaction. The filings did not show any sales by Trump.

Trump’s buying continued at a steady clip for months, including bonds from megabanks Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup worth at least $100,000 apiece.

Trump’s direct ownership of bonds from three of the country’s banking giants also comes as he considers an eventual replacement of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and weeks after he nominated one of his top aides, Stephen Miran, to a seat on the Fed’s board. The Fed can directly affect a bank’s profit by lowering or raising interest rates, along with myriad regulatory actions. As a Fed governor, Miran would have a direct say in many of those actions.

Trump purchases also included at least $500,000 of bonds apiece from chipmaker Qualcomm, mobile provider T-Mobile USA, Home Depot and UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest private health insurance company.

The filings also show that Trump bought at least $250,001 of Meta’s bonds. CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended Trump’s inauguration and donated $1 million to the event.

Likewise, Trump’s ownership in hundreds of municipal bonds puts him in line to benefit when those municipal entities pay back the debt, and it comes when the administration has been tightly controlling the distribution of funds from the federal government to local and regional governments.

Trump’s net worth is around $5.5 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaires List, up a staggering $3.2 billion since last year.

Typically, presidents divest their financial assets before or shortly after they enter office, but Trump has rejected that precedent and retained most of his empire since his first term.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Some Trump Supporters Are Finally Giving Black Folks Credit for This Most Obvious Reason…


Story by Phenix S Halley

Some Trump Supporters Are Finally Giving Black Folks Credit for This Most Obvious Reason…

In only seven months into President Donald Trump’s second term, public opinion is already starting to shift.

Between his own supporters turning their backs on Trump to American judges blocking questionable policies, it appears to be getting more difficult for Americans to support the president. Now Trump’s core demographic is starting to stray away too, and they’re speaking out about it.

Many white Americans are admitting what many have historically denied: Black people were right! One white man took to Instagram to explain what most Black people have known practically since the beginning of time.

“I never thought I would say this,” Matthew Pridgen began in a video. “We are beginning to see some good come out of the Trump presidency. What’s happening is people are waking up to the understanding of the American empire.” But just as Pridgen went on the say, Black Americans have been warning white folks about this since before November.

Since the peak of chattel slavery in the 19th century, Black folks have been outspoken about the federal government’s constant attacks on Black, brown and other minority communities. That’s why Black folks advocated for civil rights and for all people during the ’50s and ’60s. That’s also why Black folks were largely against Trump’s election… both times.

“Look at how similar the ICE raids are to the war on drugs,” Pridgen continued referring to the government’s tactical attack on Black communities during the ’80s and ’90s. “It’s the same tactic because it’s the same empire,” he added. “What Trump has done is he’s just shifted the target from the Black community to the Hispanic community because we needed a new enemy.”

White folks wouldn’t be the first to finally give credit to Black Americans. In fact, after Trump began his deportation mandate, many in the Latinx community admitted that they regret voting for Trump. As we previously reported, More than 50 percent of Latinx people voted for the Republican in November. White folks made up a whopping 57 percent of Trump voters too. But since the president has stepped back into the White House, many are beginning to see the light.

“Black people have been sounding the alarm bells. But Americans have just told them to comply with Police orders,” @barium_cobalt_nitrogen responded. According to a poll reported by Newsweek, only 11 percent of Black Americans approve of the current administration.

“We Are Finally Seeing What the Black Community Has ALWAYS Seen,” Pridgen added to the caption. Although many white people remain avid supports of Trump and his administration, others online are crediting Black folks for opening their eyes.

Other users like @colberpl1212 wrote, “Yep – always check Morality over Legality.” She added that examples such as Jim Crow laws were legal but “morally wrong.”

“Apartheid [was] Legal but Morally wrong; Segregation in schools [was] Legal but Morally wrong and Slavery [was] Legal but Morally wrong,” she continued, adding that Black people “have know[n] this for CENTURIES!!! Always check what is morally right first!”

Another user, @mouthofthesouth007 on TikTok declared, “It will be Black women who save us… AGAIN!! The most highly educated group in the US! Wait for it…. And IM HERE FOR IT. ALLLLL OF IT.”

Despite some white Americans sounding the alarms against Trump, the majority of folks are either keeping silent or condoning his actions. Time will tell just how much farther Trump can go before his core voter demographic switches up completely.

A Few Of MY Thoughts.


The terrorist Inside America: DJT

Finger pointer, vacillating uninformed name caller, with a possible stolen college degree elected to lead based on assumed business prowess based in subterfuge and theft. Brief description of current resident of the country’s house.

The “Pinball Presidency” on full tilt!

Aside from the obvious stream of lies and insults, this residency and the associated government members are putting the country on a slippery slope to recession which could last for years.

Transparency: obscure, deflect: current administration’s mission.

The deal maker ignoring his real job-being President. While Trumplestilskin is playing bulky, Stephen Himmler is running the Whitehouse.

GOP aka Trumplestilskin’s minions running scared?

Recent Texas attempts to disenfranchise voters has garnered major attention from the MAGA right. Enter Nelson Muntz-ha-ha!

Evillene was fictitious, Trumplestilskin is real!

The current administration is filled with the unqualified and often inept because that’s what the administration wants. These next 3 plus years will make the country unsafe and demotes us to kiddy table of world leaders. DJT will walk away with more wealth than he could accumulate in private life and more political issues nationally and internationally. It will take the entire term of whoever comes nest to unravel this ball of yarn. First step is in the voters’ hands-elect better representatives, keeping in mind ALL politicians

When Trumpelstiskin says “we”, it’s him!

Unfortunately, we have a few years of terrible governance ahead, this administration with the help the 2025 group has installed biased Judges, congressional sycophants.

Charlamagne Tha God Responds To Trump, Calls Out His “Authoritarian Strategy,”


 But Adds, “I’m Rooting For You, But I Need You Focused”

Ted Johnson

Mon, August 4, 2025 at 8:58 AM CDT

Charlamagne tha God responded on Monday to Donald Trump’s attack on him, calling out the administration’s “authoritarian strategy” while reiterating that the president has failed to focus on what he promised during the campaign.

The Breakfast Club co-host appeared on Lara Trump’s Fox News show on Saturday, telling the president’s daughter-in-law that he thinks traditional conservatives would “take the Republican party back,” while pointing to Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

“They know this is the issue that has gotten the base riled up. The MAGA base isn’t letting this issue go, and for the first time, they know they can probably take their party back and not piss off the MAGA base,” Charlamagne said on the show.

That set the president off. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump responded by calling Charlamagne “a low IQ individual” and a “racist sleazebag.”

On his show on Monday, Charlamagne went through each of the points that Trump made in his Truth Social post.

He noted that “sleazebag” meant “a disgusting or despicable person.”

“Depending on who you ask, that may apply to me,” Charlamagne quipped. “Okay, I personally prefer friendly neighborhood a-hole.”

“He said, ‘I’m a low IQ individual.’ I don’t know. I’ve never taken an IQ test. He said I have no idea what words are coming out of my mouth. Absolutely true. Okay, I’ve been surprising myself my whole life, like, damn, ‘I actually said that.’”

Charlamagne then went to other claims in Trump’s Truth Social post, challenging the president’s contention that he ended five wars, as well as his claim that the U.S. strikes on Iran had wiped out its nuclear capabilities.

As for Trump’s claim that he had closed the border, Charlamagne said, “You have definitely made the border harder to cross, but saying it’s closed is false and ignores everyone coming over seeking legal asylum. By the way, I want border security. I just want you to keep your promise of deporting illegals and criminals. But since Homeland Security started to work to deport more people, immigrants with legal status or no criminal history are being detained and deported too. That’s not right.”

Charlamagne then went on to dispute Trump’s claim that he has created the “greatest economy, where prices and inflation have come way down.” He pointed to Trump’s response to a weak jobs report on Friday, in which the president fired the head of the agency responsible for gathering the economic figures.

“We are in a strange time right now, a time we have never seen because authoritarian strategy is being used against anyone who speaks out against this administration,” Charlamagne said. “We saw what happened Friday, President Trump orders the firing of labor statistic chief, after data shows unemployment rates are higher. I don’t know if you know President Trump, but by firing this woman, you added to the unemployment rate. But that, along with his reaction to what I said on Lara Trump, shows how authoritarians will attempt to bully people into pushing false narratives.”

He also noted that on Lara Trump’s show, he didn’t mention race once, but Trump still called him a “racist.”

Trump, Charlamagne noted on Monday, “issued an executive order directing oversight of institutions like the Smithsonian, to remove suppress narratives about systemic racism in black history. They want to reframe cultural memory to eliminate discussions of historical racial injustice that, along with the termination of diversity and civil rights programs, are considered very racist by a lot of civil rights advocates. I didn’t even bring that up [on Lara Trump’s show], okay? I was just talking to your base, letting your base know that you haven’t kept the promises you made in regards to the economy. In fact, you’ve made things worse.”

He noted Trump’s enlistment of Elon Musk to make widespread cuts across the federal government, leading to the firing of federal workers.

“President Trump, now you’re doing exactly what the Biden administration did, trying to convince America the economy is all good when it’s not — maybe for people in a certain tax bracket, but for majority of your constituents who aren’t in the 1% it’s not all good,” he said. “So you can hire a new labor statistics chief to lie about the numbers. It won’t stop the reality of people being unemployed. You can tell falsehoods about inflation being down. It won’t stop the reality of the price of consumer goods being high because of tariffs you implemented.”

Charlamagne finished by saying, “I don’t care who’s in the White House. I want America to succeed. Believe it or not, I’m rooting for you, but I need you focused. And right now you’re not focused.”

“I need you to keep the promises of a great economy and the promises of transparency with the Epstein files. And I don’t want us as a people to be distracted.”

The Mystery of the Strong Economy Has Finally Been Solved


The Atlantic

Story by Rogé Karma • 14h • 5 min read

The Trump economy doesn’t look so hot after all. This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released revised data showing that, over the past three months, the U.S. labor market experienced its worst quarter since 2010, other than during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The timing was awkward. Hours earlier, President Donald Trump had announced a huge new slate of tariffs, set to take effect next week. He’d been emboldened by the fact that the economy had remained strong until now despite economists’ warnings—a fact that turned out not to be a fact at all.

After Trump announced his first sweeping round of “Liberation Day” tariffs, in April, the country appeared to be on the verge of economic catastrophe. The stock market plunged, the bond market nearly melted down, expectations of future inflation skyrocketed, and experts predicted a recession.

But the crisis never came. Trump walked back or delayed his most extreme threats, and those that he kept didn’t seem to inflict much economic damage. Month after month, economists predicted that evidence of the negative impact of tariffs in the economic data was just around the corner. Instead, according to the available numbers, inflation remained stable, job growth remained strong, and the stock market set new records.

The Trump administration took the opportunity to run a victory lap. “Lots of folks predicted that it would end the world; there would be some sort of disastrous outcome,” Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump’s council of economic advisers, said of Trump’s tariffs in an interview with ABC News early last month. “And once again, tariff revenue is pouring in. There’s no sign of any economically significant inflation whatsoever, and job creation remains healthy.” A July 9 White House press release declared, “President Trump was right (again),” touting strong jobs numbers and mild inflation. “President Trump is overseeing another economic boom,” it concluded.

The seemingly strong data spurred soul-searching among journalists and economists. “The Economy Seems Healthy. Were the Warnings About Tariffs Overblown?” read a representative New York Times headline. Commentators scrambled to explain how the experts could have gotten things so wrong. Maybe it was because companies had stocked up on imported goods before the tariffs had come into effect; maybe the economy was simply so strong that it was impervious to Trump’s machinations; maybe economists were suffering from “tariff derangement syndrome.” Either way, the possibility that Trump had been right, and the economists wrong, had to be taken seriously.

The sky’s refusal to fall likely influenced the Trump administration’s decision to press ahead with more tariffs. In recent months, Trump has imposed 25 percent tariffs on car parts and 50 percent tariffs on copper, steel, and aluminum. He has threatened 200 percent tariffs on pharmaceuticals. Over the past week, Trump announced trade deals under which the European Union, Japan, and South Korea agreed to accept a 15 percent tariff on exports to the United States. Finally, this morning, he announced a sweeping set of new tariffs, a sort of Liberation Day redux, including a 39 percent levy on Switzerland, 25 percent on India, and 20 percent on Vietnam. These are scheduled to take effect on August 7 unless those countries can negotiate a deal.

Then came the new economic data. This morning, the BLS released its monthly jobs report, showing that the economy added just 73,000 new jobs last month—well below the 104,000 that forecasters had expected—and that unemployment rose slightly, to 4.2 percent. More important, the new report showed that jobs numbers for the previous two months had been revised down considerably after the agency received a more complete set of responses from the businesses it surveys monthly. What had been reported as a strong two-month gain of 291,000 jobs was revised down to a paltry 33,000. What had once looked like a massive jobs boom ended up being a historically weak quarter of growth. 

Even that might be too rosy a picture. All the net gains of the past three months came from a single sector, health care, without which the labor market would have lost nearly 100,000 jobs. That’s concerning because health care is one of the few sectors that is mostly insulated from broader economic conditions: People always need it, even during bad times. (The manufacturing sector, which tariffs are supposed to be boosting, has shed jobs for three straight months.) Moreover, the new numbers followed an inflation report released by the Commerce Department yesterday that found that the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of price growth had picked up in June and remained well above the central bank’s 2 percent target. (The prior month’s inflation report was also revised upward to show a slight increase in May.) Economic growth and consumer spending also turned out to have fallen considerably compared with the first half of 2024. Taken together, these economic reports are consistent with the stagflationary environment that economists were predicting a few months ago: mediocre growth, a weakening labor market, and rising prices.

The striking thing about these trends is how heavily they diverge from how the economy was projected to perform before Trump took office. As the economist Jason Furman recently pointed out, the actual economic growth rate in the first six months of 2025 was barely more than half what the Bureau of Economic Analysis had projected in November 2024, while core inflation came in at about a third higher than projections.

The worst might be yet to come. Many companies did in fact stock up on imported goods before the tariffs kicked in; others have been eating the cost of tariffs to avoid raising prices in the hopes that the duties would soon go away. Now that tariffs seem to be here to stay, more and more companies will likely be forced to either raise prices or slash their costs—including labor costs. A return to the 1970s-style combination of rising inflation and unemployment is looking a lot more likely.

The Trump administration has found itself caught between deflecting blame for the weak economic numbers and denying the numbers’ validity. In an interview with CNN this morning, Miran admitted that the new jobs report “isn’t ideal” but went on to attribute it to various “anomalous factors,” including data quirks and reduced immigration. (Someone should ask Miran why immigration is down.) And this afternoon, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social accusing the BLS commissioner of cooking the books to make him look bad. “I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.” He then went on to argue, not for the first time, that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should be fired for hamstringing the economy with high interest rates. These defenses are, of course, mutually exclusive: If the bad numbers are fake, why should Trump be mad at Powell?

In these confused denials, one detects a shade of desperation on Trump’s part. Of course, everything could end up being fine. Maybe economists will be wrong, and the economy will rebound with newfound strength in the second half of the year. But that’s looking like a far worse bet than it did just 24 hours ago.