It’ll cost you more to drown your sorrows.
Just getting a beer in Texas could become more expensive under President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on essentially every country in the world.
While most industries are bracing for Trump’s tariff announcement from the White House on Wednesday, the brewpub industry is particularly worried because so many of their supplies come from outside the U.S.
Texas has more than 400 craft brewers. They are already facing higher costs for cans because of 25% tariffs Trump imposed on aluminum, half of which is imported and most of it from Canada.
Almost all steel kegs used in the U.S. are made in Germany. And Canada is a major supplier of both barley and malt — essential ingredients for brewers. If Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada and Germany, all those products would get more expensive.
In short, what exactly Trump rolls out on Wednesday will have a big impact on an industry that was already starting to face a slowdown as seltzers and cocktails inch in on the alcohol industry.
“It’s hard enough to run a small business when your supply chain is intact,” Bill Butcher, a brew pub operator in Virginia, told the Associated Press. “The unpredictability just injects an element of chaos.”
The craft brewing phenomenon has crested in Texas, with less growth and numerous closures over the past couple of years. Some of that was COVID, some of it is that Gen Z doesn’t drink as much as its elders, some of it was overexposure. But small breweries, which are very neighborhood-based and in my experience are great locations for charity events and fundraisers, are still a big player in the local food and entertainment scene, and we’re better for it. This is another situation where you might think that our state leaders would be unhappy with a federal policy that directly threatened the viability of countless small and medium businesses in Texas. But, well, you know. Worshipping the idol comes first, always.
Dumbass even slapped a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands
Zero people live there
But he still exempted Russia and North Korea from the tariffs
His original Secretary of State said it best: “he’s a f*****g moron”
He also put tariffs on the Chagos Islands, home of Diego Garcia, a US military base. What an idiot.
What does “tax the rich” look like? People say that would have a similar affect on inflation. If tariffs are so bad, is taxing the rich similarly catastrophic? The small business is emphasized in all this tariff news, but the large industries are also. Buffett says “be greedy when everyone is afraid, be afraid when others are greedy”
“Tax the rich” looks like an income tax or an assets tax – even more so if the marginal* tax rate is progressive.
*marginal = only applies to amounts above some defined number.