This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
It is popular to say that America is in decline. American decline is an <a href="https://x.com/johnddavidson/status/2089075290509336876?s=20">accepted</a> premise on both the Left and parts of the Right. While the Left celebrates American decline because, for them, it is the decline of an oppressive imperialist power, the doomer Right claims it can reverse it with ideas that would actually bring it about, such as tariffs, overregulating technological innovation, or reducing population growth from legal immigration. But both sides get the facts wrong: America is not in decline; it is beginning a century of dominance. While there are grave threats ahead, America can and should remain the world’s top superpower simply by staying on its current path.
Last year, America produced 26% of the world’s total production of goods and services despite Americans representing barely over 4% of the world’s population. This share is higher than it was back in 1980 — before the China boom and the liberation of Eastern Europe from socialism — when Americans represented over 5% of the world’s population. In other words, while in 1980 the average American produced six times as much as the average citizen of the rest of the planet, in 2025 the average American produced eight times as much.
In fact, the ratio of American productivity to that of the rest of the world hasn’t varied much since the 1960s. While at the end of World War II the United States was much more productive than the destroyed European and Asian nations, only during the stagflation of the 1970s and the Great Recession did U.S.-to-world production per working-age person dip below a 6-to-1 ratio. During the Reagan years and the internet boom, American workers reached new heights relative to the rest of the world, becoming over eight times as productive. The only other period in recent history when America’s lead over the planet matched today’s was the peak of the dot-com boom and the booming Reagan economy.
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Relative to China, the U.S. is also getting richer. The ratio of American to Chinese working-age productivity bottomed out during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since rebounded from under 6-to-1 to 7-to-1.
But even if China’s productivity begins catching up with America’s and returns to its all-time record over the coming decades, its ongoing demographic collapse will continue to shrink its share of the world economy.
By the end of the 21st century, China’s working-age population is projected to shrink by over 70%, while America’s is expected to remain stable. Due to demographic decline, even if China’s GDP per worker rises back to its record relative to America’s, its share of world GDP will decline from 16% today to 5% by the end of the century while America’s will remain stable at around a quarter. Even if, by a miracle, the Chinese manage to catch up to half of American productivity rather than the current 14%, its share of the world economy will still decline. In other words, China is doomed thanks to America’s productivity and demographic advantages.
Critics of these facts may say that focusing on gross domestic product is akin to worship of a statistic, and that what really matters is the standard of living of the average person. But by that measure, America is also improving. The median American family earns nearly <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA672N">50% more</a> today than it did in the mid-1980s, and what Americans earn eclipses what the citizens of any other nation earn for the same work. In terms of price-adjusted income after taxes and transfers, the American household has a <a href="https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/household-disposable-income.html">disposable income</a> 39% greater than that of the average German household, 68% greater than the British, 81% greater than the Canadian, 86% greater than the Swedish, and more than twice that of the Japanese.
America is succeeding, but success isn’t guaranteed. The doomers are wrong that American decline is a fact — but decline is possible, and the doomers themselves push the policies that would make it happen. Only Washington can force America into economic and social decline.
The first great risk America faces is strangling artificial intelligence (AI) before it makes America richer and technologically dominant. The AI buildout is now the single largest engine of American growth and job creation: data center investment is <a href="https://www.apollo.com/wealth/insights-news/insights/daily-spark/the-ai-capex-boom-is-building-twice-as-fast-as-the-housing-boom">approaching</a> 3% of GDP, more than twice what telecommunications investment was during the internet boom. The United States also has more data centers than all other major countries combined, meaning that America, not China, will own and control the data.
Yet a horseshoe coalition of leftists and populists now campaigns to stop data center construction and overregulate AI — exactly the outcome the Chinese Communist Party wants. Every blocked data center is a gift to Beijing and lost tax revenue for local and federal governments, which means a stronger China and higher future taxes for all of us.
The second and related risk is shutting the door on high-skilled legal immigration. America’s main advantage over China rests on both innovation and demographics, both driven by immigration. Without net migration, the Census Bureau projects that the American working-age population will shrink like China’s rather than remain stable. Furthermore, college-educated immigrants are founding and powering the tech startups that are growing the economy, creating new products, lowering production costs through innovation, and hiring thousands of other Americans. Ending employment-based immigration would mean voluntarily following China’s fatal demographic path.
Finally, America will decline if Washington continues in fiscal denial. The federal deficit is on track to hit <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61983">$2 trillion</a> this year, national debt just hit $40 trillion, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/gfdegdq188S">over 120%</a> of GDP, and interest alone now costs more than Medicare, Medicaid, or the Pentagon. If Washington does not cut both fraudulent spending and entitlement growth, interest rates will keep rising, making homes harder to afford and fewer investments viable.
Despite what the doomers and demagogues tell you, America is not in decline; it is beginning a century of greater dominance than ever. But decline is a policy choice, so let’s pray that our leaders let builders build, keep the door open to the smart and talented from around the world, and put the fiscal house in order so the doomers are proven wrong.
***
Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an economist.

Patriotic composition showing symbols of American independence

The Myth Of American Decline

Communist China

Data Centers

Immigration

Inflation

MI x DW

Prosperity

President Donald Trump said Friday that he reached a deal to increase beef imports into the United States with the goal of driving down prices. 
Trump said up to 300,000 metric tons of beef would be allowed to be imported into the country over a 90-day period without facing tariffs. Beef prices have increased by almost 12% in the last year, according to the most recent data from the Department of Agriculture. 
“Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families. As everyone knows, under President Biden, beef prices soared at their fastest rate and the American beef herd fell to its smallest size in modern history,” the president wrote on Truth Social. 
“As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff,” he added. “We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices. This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.”
Research <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings">indicates</a> that the American cattle herd has fallen to its lowest level in 75 years and the Economic Research Service recently noted that “wholesale beef prices remain at all-time highs for this time of year.” In June 2026, beef and veal prices were up 11.8% from June 2025 and prices are predicted to only increase. 
Beef prices have been a persistent problem for Trump throughout his second term. He has taken numerous actions aimed at reducing prices, including signing an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/02/ensuring-affordable-beef-for-the-american-consumer/">executive order</a> in February 2026 increasing the amount of beef Argentina could export to the United States. 
That executive order noted the declining American cattle herd, the threat of New World screwworm, and persistent wildfires in cattle-producing states. 
Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/11/trump-administration-cracks-down-on-foreign-owned-meat-packing-cartels/">also directed</a> the Justice Department to launch investigations into meat packing companies over alleged collusion to drive up prices. 
“This decisive action targets the foreign-dominated conglomerates that control America’s meat supply and have been accused of artificially inflating prices at the expense of farmers, ranchers, and working families,” Trump said at the time. 
Food prices could play a role in the midterm elections as Democrats across the country are running on the issue of affordability.

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Trump Just Went After A Grocery Staple That’s Been Hammering Americans

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Walmart has received nearly all of the $2.9 billion in tariff refunds it was eligible for, and the retail giant says its customers will benefit through lower prices. 
&#8220;We&#8217;re investing heavily in price because customers need us to and because we believe it drives market share gains over time,&#8221; Walmart CFO John David Rainey <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/walmart-tariff-refunds-lower-prices/">said</a> in the company’s quarterly earnings call Thursday.
Walmart and other businesses that paid tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are receiving refunds after the Supreme Court struck down the levies. So far, the federal government has refunded about $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs out of an estimated $166 billion owed, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/08/tariff-refunds-reach-100-billion-mark/">leaving</a> roughly $66 billion still to be reimbursed. 
Walmart said it plans to use the tariff refund to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/walmart-tariff-refunds-lower-prices/">invest</a> in lower prices, particularly on groceries and general merchandise, as consumers continue to seek relief from elevated prices. The company said customers should begin seeing the impact of those investments in the third quarter. 
Walmart has historically proved resilient during periods of economic uncertainty and high inflation, when consumers often turn to lower-priced retailers and cheaper brands. The company appears to be leaning into that advantage as consumers continue to grapple with elevated prices. 
&#8220;We’re investing in prices because customers are looking to us for value,&#8221; the company added in a statement. 
The announcement follows a round of price cuts the retail giant recently rolled out.
&#8220;This summer, we&#8217;re making even more investments in price, with thousands of Rollbacks across the products customers are shopping for most, including beef, fresh produce and beverages, grills, pools, toys and summer fashion apparel,” said Walmart executive Julie Barber. 
 The cuts included fresh ground beef falling from $6.74 to $5.94 per pound, 24-packs of Coca-Cola dropping from $14.97 to $9.97, and bags of red cherries falling from $11.18 to $5.63, among other discounts.
President Trump took credit for Walmart&#8217;s price cuts in July, saying the retailer had lowered prices at his administration&#8217;s request to celebrate America&#8217;s 250th birthday. 
“Great news! I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration’s request to celebrate our great Country’s 250th birthday,” Trump said. 
Walmart&#8217;s announcement of the summer rollbacks did not mention the Trump administration or attribute the price cuts to a request from the White House.

A Walmart Store Ahead Of Earnings Figures

Walmart Has Good News For Americans Tired Of High Grocery Bills

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Eating out, entertainment, and vacations are among the first items on the chopping block for Americans looking to save money as prices remain high amid lingering inflation and the ongoing war in Iran.
People are also scrambling for ways to save on household necessities and extracurricular activities. Over <a href="https://www.parealtors.org/blog/75-of-americans-attempt-diy-projects/">75%</a> of Americans are attempting DIY projects instead of relying on expensive professionals. The most popular projects include painting, flooring, landscaping, and bathroom remodeling. The <a href="https://www.rubyhome.com/blog/diy-stats/">majority</a> of Americans say saving money is their number one reason for attempting DIY projects. Others are diving into projects themselves in hopes of boosting their homes&#8217; resale value.
“It absolutely still makes sense to pay for some things, but you just have to be a lot more deliberate,” Lydia Royce, a 38-year-old mother of two in Norman, Oklahoma, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/12/some-americans-say-theyre-starting-cut-corners-inflation-persists/">told</a> The Washington Post.
Royce said she’s learning how to install a French drain rather than outsourcing to a landscaping team.
Some Americans are putting in extra effort to find cheaper groceries. Sarah Bailey, 43, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, said she switched her family from seafood to pork for a cheaper protein. She’s also planning out her routes to ensure she takes the most fuel-efficient way for work, errands, and picking up her kids. 
“I’m just moving through life a bit differently,” she told the Post.
Some have coined these penny-pinching practices &#8220;revenge saving,&#8221; as Americans who participate go to extreme measures to save and avoid all unnecessary purchases. One of the approaches is a challenge to go 24 hours without spending money. 
&#8220;The beauty of revenge saving is that the minute you start saving, the thrill begins and will continue. The benefits grow as the savings increase through contributions, and, if money is invested well, through powerful compound growth,” said Bobbi Rebell, a personal finance expert at <a href="https://www.cardrates.com">CardRates.com</a>. 
Another trend is “loud budgeting,&#8221; a practice that has become popular among Gen Z in which people tell their friends and families how much they are able to spend on activities for the month to help normalize saving money. 
“Loud budgeting helps take an element of shame away from feeling like you don’t have enough money,” a financial educator <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/finance/learn/loud-budgeting">told</a> NerdWallet. 
Emma Edwards, the founder of the Broke Generation, said that loud budgeting goes against current norms. 
“We have this belief that our financial situation shouldn’t have to be an inconvenience to others, or we shouldn’t reveal ourselves as being on a budget,” she said.
Edwards describes loud budgeting as being upfront when something doesn&#8217;t align with a person&#8217;s financial goals, values, or capacity.

Close up on man’s hand holding twenty dollar bill, US currency, cash

All The Ways Americans Are Saving A Buck During Affordability Crisis

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Grocery prices are too high; we all know it; we all get it.
They&#8217;re up about 35% since 2019 — first because of COVID-19, then because of Joe Biden&#8217;s inflationary policies. Inflation has slowed; grocery prices are up about 2.7% for the year right now.
But let’s set the record straight: Grocery prices are never coming back down to where they were in 2019. The only way for them to do that would be for us to experience a serious, actual deflationary episode, which generally means an economic depression.
Food inflation started to level out in 2023 while Joe Biden was still president, and has continued at a relatively tepid pace since. Yet the impression persists that the Trump administration isn&#8217;t doing enough to address inflation, in part because of the tariffs. Tariffs don&#8217;t target consumer prices; they target fairness in the production process and a level playing field with foreign countries
But there’s a far worse and more serious problem in the United States: Unrealistic, inflated utopian expectations.
Many young people have a completely broken set of expectations about life right now.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2479?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
One student wrote, “A burrito shouldn&#8217;t cost 20 bucks.” Andrew Kolvet of TPUSA commented, “Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.”
I agree things cost more than they should. But there is only one way in the United States of America in 2026 for a burrito to cost $20: You went to an expensive restaurant.
A burrito at Chipotle probably tops out at about $13. A top-shelf burrito option at Taco Bell runs $5.99 plus tax.
Let’s pretend that you&#8217;re a poor young student, as I once was. Or pretend you&#8217;re a dude who is just starting his work life and wants upward mobility, as I once did.
This is what you do: If you want a burrito, you head to the supermarket. Here are today&#8217;s prices via Instacart: You buy a package of 10 tortillas for roughly $4. You also grab a can of refried beans for $2.50, then grab some cheese, salsa, maybe an avocado, and nuke it in the microwave.
Boom, you&#8217;re talking about a pretty good burrito for less than $2, one-tenth of the price that student was talking about.
So what the hell are we even talking about here?
Unfortunately, this has become the mode for a lot of young people: “Why can&#8217;t I afford what my parents could afford when they were my age?”
Spoiler alert about groceries: You can. And even in areas for housing where deregulation has been the rule, you still can.
In fact, today you have more restaurant options, your food takes up a smaller share of your disposable income, and it is probably significantly better than it was back in 1950, when your grandparents were consuming, on average, about 1,000 fewer calories per day than you do now.
Food expenditure as a share of family disposable income in the United States has been flat at well under 10% since the mid-1990s. If you go back to when your parents were doing this, it was roughly 13% to 15%. But we&#8217;re constantly being told that we can&#8217;t even afford food, which is a wild exaggeration.
We are, if anything, a very overweight country, and all of this is yet another form of black-pilling.
Things can get better. There are things we can do to get government out of this business, and we should. But insane, outsized expectations of reality wreck politics. That’s because if both parties are promising you something that can never be achieved via politics, you will inevitably be annoyed. You will swivel over to the other side, and then they&#8217;ll fail, and you&#8217;ll swivel back to the first side.
Here is the deal: In the United States of America, we are fatter and richer, and we have nicer houses and nicer cars than in the past, and the food we eat is much, much better than it was for our parents, in general.
There are secondary distortions that follow from that. “You know what? We need to go back to the way it was. Our food system is broken. We need to go totally domestic. We&#8217;re talking about chicken coops in the backyard.”
I think our ancestors would have laughed at us trying to cosplay the 1850s, when it turns out that if we had lived in the 1850s, we all would have been miserable and smelly, crapping in a hole in the backyard.
Life was not great back then. In fact, if you take people from poorer countries today and you bring them to the United States, they&#8217;re not complaining about the status of our food supply.
There&#8217;s a woman we know from the Philippines. She&#8217;s wonderful, and she just brought her mom over from there. The family grew up in a shack in the Philippines with no actual floor, along with 10 siblings. When her mom came over, she walked into an American supermarket, and it blew her mind.
Why?
Because for most of the world, the luxury that we experience on a daily basis here in the United States is utterly unthinkable.
Our system is not broken. It is working really, really, really efficiently. We have one of the most efficient food production and delivery systems in the history of the world — and the cheapest.
According to the Foundation for Economic Education, the price of eggs declined 96% between 1919 and 2019. That means an unskilled laborer today can buy 24 times as many eggs as an unskilled laborer could a century ago for the same amount of work.
Does this mean everything is perfectly ideal? No. We could probably reduce food prices by 5% to 10%. All you&#8217;d have to do is eliminate tariffs and ramp up American oil production.
There is so much black-pilling, so much doom-scrolling, so much “America is terrible. Everything&#8217;s awful. No one can afford anything.”
None of this is to claim that everything is ideal.
But there&#8217;s no such thing as ideal. Everything is comparative.
Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris. Trump is far better.
America versus other countries. America is far better.
America&#8217;s living situation now versus your parents’ living situation. Comparatively, America is far better now.
Economics is a study in trade-offs. If you&#8217;re on the Right and you spend all day complaining about the production side — “What if all of our labor was both domestic and unionized and we got rid of technology? And what if all of our food was produced in Iowa and was totally organic?” — then you don&#8217;t get to complain about the prices being too high. All of your inputs just doubled.
If you want prices to go down, end the tariffs, ramp up market-based incentives for innovation, and break up useless unions. Prices will go down.
There&#8217;s one kind of silly critique that I&#8217;ve heard online. “We need to stop being distracted by foreign wars. It&#8217;s the foreign wars that are causing the food inflation.”
No, it isn&#8217;t. The war in Iran has had basically no impact on food prices in the U.S.
Here&#8217;s the food inflation percentage increase between 2016 and 2026: 2023: 2.7; 2024: 2.5; 2025: 3.1; 2026: 3.0.
That is not a gigantic bump based on the war in Iran.
If you actually want the prices to go up, you should leave Iran in charge of the Strait of Hormuz so it can keep throttling up or throttling down our prices at will, based on oil shocks.
Losing wars to failed dictatorships seeking nuclear weapons is not a brilliant trade strategy.
But put all that aside and go back to the larger point: The Right is doom-pilling; it is black-pilling, and right now it is having an impact.
Not everything in America does, in fact, suck. Things are quite good by any historical standard — much better than if Kamala Harris had been president.
That may not be a winning message in 2026, but I can tell you what a losing message looks like: “America totally sucks under Trump, and if you elect more Republicans, it will surely continue to suck. What we need is a Tucker Carlson third party. What we need is a common-good conservatism third party that totally changes everything that&#8217;s been done. Elect Democrats. Split the GOP vote. Then it&#8217;ll get better.”
This demoralization is what the black-pillers are doing right now.
Don’t buy into it.

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The Black Pill Trap

Ben Shapiro

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is blaming President Donald Trump for a recent surge in homelessness that has left thousands more people living on the streets of the so-called City of Angels.
<a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/los-angeles-homelessness-expected-rise-3-5-sources-say-ahead-lahsa-count">FOX11 reported</a> that homelessness in America&#8217;s second-largest city is expected to rise by about 3.5% when the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority releases new data Friday.
Ahead of Friday&#8217;s official release, FOX11 reported that the city estimates roughly 45,000 people are living on its streets—an 8% increase from last year—underscoring Los Angeles&#8217; ongoing struggles with homelessness and quality-of-life issues.
The looming report also undercuts Bass&#8217; campaign narrative that homelessness has significantly dropped under her rocky tenure. Her signature Inside Safe initiative has spent <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-04-05/under-la-mayors-300-million-homeless-program-40-have-returned-to-street">more than $300 million</a> to move roughly 5,800 people into interim housing, mostly hotels and motels, but about 40% have since returned to the streets, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/could-spencer-pratt-be-l-a-s-outsider-hero">The Daily Wire</a> reported. Just one in four participants has reached permanent housing, at a cost of more than $200,000 per permanent placement.
To explain the recent surge, Bass turned to her party’s favorite political punching bag: President Trump. 
&#8220;For two years straight, we drove down homelessness by historic margins — but as expected, last year our efforts ultimately couldn’t keep up with policies and funding cuts on the federal and state levels,&#8221; Bass said, according to FOX11. &#8220;The Trump administration has driven up the cost of gas, groceries, and rent — pushing more families to the edge — and slashed critical safety net funding.”
The embattled mayor, who is facing a stronger-than-expected challenge from her left flank, also took aim at Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom&#8217;s handling of the state budget.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WATCH: Inside sources tell me L.A.’s homeless count is expected to rise… ending two straight years of reported declines.
The official numbers won’t be released until Friday, but multiple sources familiar with LAHSA’s latest count say homelessness is trending upward in Los… <a href="https://t.co/sUYPMVcN54">pic.twitter.com/sUYPMVcN54</a>
— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) <a href="https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/2080162994324144515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
“And, last year’s state cut of over $70 million severely impacted our work to keep people housed and get more Angelenos off the streets,” she said in a <a href="https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/2080161071936221606?s=20">statement</a>. “The lack of adequate services continues to be a real problem and a contributing factor to people cycling in and out of homelessness, and these services are controlled by LA County.” 
The latest figures come as little surprise to many Los Angeles residents, including billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully challenged Bass in the 2022 mayoral race. “I doubt anyone living in LA is surprised,” he <a href="https://x.com/RickCarusoLA/status/2080334679530758318?s=20">said.</a>  
Some residents questioned the city&#8217;s count, arguing the actual homeless population is far higher than reported.
“I don’t listen to the numbers, my eyes are better than numbers,” one man <a href="https://x.com/RickCarusoLA/status/2080334679530758318?s=20">told FOX11</a>, in a report showing littered streets, vandalized buildings, and open drug use. 
Leftist L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman will face off against Bass in the November mayoral election after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/spencer-pratts-race-has-been-called-see-the-results">troves of late-arriving ballots</a> locked Republican Spencer Pratt out of the race.
Pratt’s viral campaign ads tapped into the reality TV star’s savvy social media background to push a message of change in a city plagued by chronic challenges. His platform captivated nationwide attention but ultimately fell flat in a deep-blue city dominated by leftists. 
His election defeat, however, has not stopped the Palisades wildfire victim from speaking out against the city’s leadership.  
“SHOCKER&#8230;the LA homeless count is going UP!” Pratt <a href="https://x.com/spencerpratt/status/2080284771846918154?s=20">said</a> Thursday. “I warned you guys: the more homeless people, the more money Nithya Raman and Karen Bass can launder through their corrupt NGOs. You will NEVER fix this problem by electing people who profit off it.”

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L.A. Mayor Blames Trump For City’s Homelessness Surge

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Jet fuel prices have fallen 40% since peaking in April, but airlines say strong demand and limited supply are keeping fares elevated despite lower fuel costs.
Fuel is one of an airline&#8217;s largest expenses, and carriers often cite rising fuel prices as a reason for increasing fares. But airline executives say strong demand has kept the fares high even as fuel costs have declined, boosting profit margins.
“I’m actually very bullish that the industry will retain a much higher percentage of the fare increases than would be typical historically,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in May. 
Delta CEO Ed Bastian echoed that sentiment, saying the airline expects to keep fares high. 
“Fuel recapture is going to be important no matter what we do, and the degree to which we can retain any of the pricing strength that we talked about from industry rationalization, that will certainly help us boost our margins this year and clearly into next year as well.” 
Bastian <a href="https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/06/02/delta-dal-q1-2026-earnings-call-transcript">said</a> Delta&#8217;s higher fares are projected to recapture only 40-50% of the roughly $2 billion headwind the airline faced in the second quarter. He argued fares are unlikely to fall until airlines can add more capacity. 
&#8220;Prices will come down when we can fly more, when there’s more supply, it’s a supply and demand. Right now we’re kind of logjammed,” Bastian said.
He attributed part of that bottleneck to congestion in the nation&#8217;s air traffic control system.
“As you open up the skies, and you bring more flow, that&#8217;s going to help bring pricing down and enable us to bring more people to more places.”
The current pricing environment resembles the pattern following the 2022 spike in oil prices, when West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark for oil, traded near $120 per barrel.
After fuel prices began falling in early 2023, Delta President Glen Hauenstein <a href="https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2023/01/13/delta-air-lines-dal-q4-2022-earnings-call-transcri/">told</a> investors the company intended to maintain the fare increases for as long as possible. 
“As we think about how we do fuel recapture on the way up… we are going to keep as much of it as we can.” 
Southwest executives struck a similar tone. During its January 2023 earnings call, Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green said, &#8220;It&#8217;s a strong fare environment now, and, you know, I expect that to continue.” 
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have shifted more of their discretionary spending toward the &#8220;experience economy,” which has helped keep demand for travel strong.

Southwest

Jet Fuel Is 40% Cheaper. So Why Aren’t Flights?

Air and Space

Air Travel

Airlines

Business

Travel

President Donald Trump took credit for Walmart cutting prices on summer staples like ground beef and corn on the cob as he continues to pitch his economic message ahead of the midterm elections. 
Trump said Monday that the price cuts were made at his administration’s request and praised the retail giant as a “truly patriotic company.” The cuts come as Trump has battled lingering inflation, including elevated gas prices. 
“Great news! I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration&#8217;s request to celebrate our great Country&#8217;s 250th birthday,” the president posted on Truth Social. 
“Walmart will, in particular, be dropping the price for a pound of ground beef by almost 15%, among many other products. This is a huge deal for the many millions of Americans who, smartly, shop at Walmart, which is a truly patriotic Company who loves the U.S.A.,” Trump added. 
Walmart announced after Trump’s statement that the price per pound of beef would be cut by around 12%, from $6.74 to $5.94. The cost of a 2.25 pound bag of red cherries would go to $5.63 from $11.18, and corn on the cob would be $0.25 each instead of $0.68.
Walmart announced that prices on ice cream, potato chips, disposable plates, and soda would also be dropping.
“From backyard barbecues and family vacations to pool days and neighborhood gatherings, the savings are designed to help customers and members make the most of the season while spending less on the products they need, want and love most,” Walmart said. 
Sam’s Club also announced cuts to meat products like chicken wings, hot dogs, ground beef, and pork ribs. 
Trump has pinned inflation on the historic jump in prices during the Biden years. The latest inflation report from May 2026 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inflation-passes-unfavorable-mark-for-first-time-since-2023">showed</a> prices rising 4.2% on the year, the largest jump since 2023. Those increases were largely driven by energy price increases driven by the war with Iran. Those prices have started to decline with the average price per gallon now under $4.00 nationally. 
“Just as I promised, Oil Prices are plummeting FAST, and Gas Prices at the pump are dropping too, just like egg and Prescription Drug prices which I am bringing down by historic levels,” Trump said. “Walmart is stepping up in a big and bold way, and other Retailers should follow the lead of these absolute Patriots.”

Trump/Summer cookout

Trump Takes Credit After ‘Truly Patriotic’ Retail Giant Slashes Prices On Summer Items

Affordability Crisis

The Hidden Reasons Why You Can’t Afford A House

House Prices

Illegal Immigration

In 1992, Barenaked Ladies released “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aynCgnbbgbM">If I Had $1,000,000</a>,” a track detailing all the things they’d buy with those stacks of cash. Offering little in the way of social commentary and more in the way of silly fun, the song became a crowd favorite despite never being a single nor having a video made for it. And at the time, it was accurate. One could buy quite a few things with $1,000,000 in 1992. Arguably, $1,000,000 in 1992 would make one rich.
In 2026, not so much. To achieve <a href="https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm">comparable purchasing power</a> in 2026, one would need $2,361,684.28, a 137% increase. And not everything is <a href="https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1992?amount=1000000%23">staying on track</a> with that inflationary level. For example, had Barenaked Ladies bought the house mentioned in the song in 1992, the median price was around $120,000. Since that time, the cost of housing has increased by 158%. Medical care is up 211%. Food and beverage grew by 148%.
One bright spot is that the emu they considered purchasing has gone in the opposite direction. Back in 1992, emu farming was a highly speculative business. To buy one, you’d have to pony up between $18,000 and $25,000. Today, you can get an emu for a mere $800-$2,500, making it one of the few times Homer was correct to ignore Marge’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LAfxAr-sqto">advice</a>.
If your job at the nuclear power plant forces you to go back to college, though, you’re facing an entirely different animal. In 1992, the average tuition for a state school was $2,349. Today, it’s $10,340, an increase of 340%. On the plus side, though, universities have drastically watered down course difficulty, making it that much easier to earn a degree that doesn’t truly prepare kids for a rapidly changing world.
The problem isn’t really the inflation, though inflation in healthcare and education is an issue. The problem is that we haven’t inflated our definitions of wealth since 1992. Financial reporters and businesses, for example, love to discuss the changing behaviors of affluent shoppers. For example, did you know that people earning over $100,000 annually <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/20/how-walmart-won-over-wealthy-shoppers.html">shop at Walmart</a>? Does anyone think $100,000 is really that much money, though?
Because it’s not. The median individual income in the United States is <a href="https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/average-salary-in-us">$62,088</a>. Household income pushes that number up to $<a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/finance/learn/median-household-income">83,730</a>. The individual number may be farther from $100,000 than the household number, but are we really going to pretend that an additional $17,000-38,000 is the difference between average and affluent?
On the business side, it’s easy to understand why frugal companies want to appeal to all shoppers. Wealthy people don’t experience economic downturns the same way as those working paycheck to paycheck. The wealthy can continue making discretionary purchases when the economy heads south, helping maintain profits, while those with tighter budgets cut back.
When it comes to members of the media who parrot those lines about the price of affluence, it does a disservice to the public, at least the portion of the public that still trusts mainstream media. (Current level: 28%, a decrease of 51.72% from 1992.) As such, it’s time to update the way we talk about these things.
For a while, Barenaked Ladies were just singing songs. We as a people need accurate information, including accurate information about what constitutes true wealth. To retire, you’re going to need at least a million. The median cost of a house isn’t quite half a million, but <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS">it’s close</a>. We now have the world’s <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/spacex-ipo-elon-musk-trillionaire-net-worth">first trillionaire</a>, which is super impressive, but it is important to keep things in perspective.
Because having $1,000,000 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in 2026. It’s important that you shouldn’t turn it down if you get the opportunity, but it’s not going to make you wealthy. So instead of mischaracterizing what it means to be a millionaire, let’s aspire to join their ranks, if for no other reason than we want to enjoy our golden years. And while we’re at it, let’s also refrain from using the word “rich” to denote having large amounts of financial resources. Instead, say “wealthy.” I’m Rich and, like Elon the trillionaire, there is only one of me. Unlike the trillionaire, though, I cannot fund interplanetary travel, especially not when gas is so expensive.
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin&#8217; Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

Retro Television Gameshow Broadcast

The Barenaked Ladies Challenge: If You Have A Million Dollars, Are You Rich?

Barenaked Ladies

DW Opinion

wealth

The media and their allies keep saying there’s only one way to win the war in Iran: lose.
Let Iran have a path toward a nuclear bomb, give them a boatload of cash, and beg them to leave the Strait of Hormuz alone. The alternative, they say, is endless war.
That&#8217;s colossally stupid.
First of all, the war in Iran doesn&#8217;t have to be endless. Second, giving Iran a clear pathway toward a nuke, ballistic missile development, funding of terror, billions of dollars in cash, and the capacity to continue shutting down traffic in the Strait — that’s losing.
Alternatively, we could do this thing called winning.
That’s what President Trump may now be considering.
The real reason people in the United States are very concerned about what&#8217;s happening in Iran is inflation; if we weren&#8217;t experiencing price inflation due to the energy cutoff, no one would care. It would just be something that&#8217;s happening quite far away, especially because the military has done an extraordinary job of minimizing the damage to the U.S. and our allies.
The reason people are worried right now is that inflation is coming in very hot. As <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/10/heres-the-inflation-breakdown-for-may-2026-in-one-chart.html">reported</a> by CNBC, the annualized inflation rate in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, clocked in at 4.2%; it rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2443?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
If you exclude food and energy prices because of the war in Iran, the so-called core Consumer Price Index accelerated to 0.2% for the month and 2.9% from a year ago, which is not amazing, but it&#8217;s not terrible either. The annual rate was in line with the forecast. The monthly gain was below the 0.3% estimate and less than the 0.4% increase in April.
What we&#8217;re really watching right now is a temporary price spike caused by a bottleneck in energy supply in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump was asked about this and effectively stated that, despite the fact that we&#8217;re in a war, inflation numbers are much lower than anticipated, and when we&#8217;re out of that war, the numbers will be lower than they were before it even started.
That’s true.
So how do we get to the end of this war?
Iran has been tapping the United States, as per their usual arrangement. Frankly, I&#8217;m a little surprised that whoever was advising President Trump got this so wrong. They certainly should not have. I don&#8217;t know whether it was the Witkoff team or the vice president&#8217;s office that was leading the negotiations through Pakistan, which is a Chinese cutout.
But the idea that Iran was ever going to be in negotiations, give up its nuclear program, its ballistic missile capacity, or its funding of Iranian terror groups abroad, was not a great premise. You can tell it&#8217;s not a great premise because if the offer to Iran is “You get to reenter the world economy, if you do all those things,” you know what&#8217;s been on the table for decades?
All of this.
If Iran had given up its extraterritorial ambitions, if it had not threatened its neighbors with ballistic missiles, if it had not tried to develop nuclear weapons, if it had been clear and open about all of that, they&#8217;d be in exactly the same position as Qatar or UAE or Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, none of which are democracies, all of which have Islamic law written into their constitutions and all of which are well integrated into the world economy.
Iran could have reintegrated itself into the world economy at any time. In other words, the sort of carrot that is being offered by the negotiators is not a carrot at all. Iran has had that carrot the entire time.
The ceasefire was misbegotten, a bad idea.
The reason it was a bad idea is that it gave Iran hope. And when you give the Iranian regime hope, they push. When you give them an inch, they take several hundred miles. They try to link up all of their terror apparatus by linking activity in Lebanon to activity in Iran.
The idea is that if Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon, then Iran will fire missiles at Israel. They are trying to link all these causes and create a regional hegemony for themselves.
There&#8217;s really only one way to stop all of that: To exert extraordinary pressure on Iran and to show that you are willing to take what Iran is willing to dish out in return.
That is the only way to win a war.
In response to the Iranians shooting down an American helicopter yesterday, U.S. military forces struck air defenses and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
Will that actually generate any meaningful concessions from Iran?
I&#8217;m highly doubtful because Iran is not led by people chiefly concerned with the economy. I think they are only worried about one thing: the preservation of their regime. What they&#8217;re worried about is that if their economy continues to tank, eventually there will be a movement inside the country to overthrow them.
The phrase that&#8217;s often been used about the Iranian government is that the Iranian government has never won a war or lost a negotiation.
If you&#8217;d want them to lose the negotiation, they need to lose the war. You don&#8217;t win by simply playing not to lose.
Today, President Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116731447139970106">stated</a>:
<blockquote>The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.</blockquote>
I said on March 19: “In my opinion, the faster you move, the better. And so my temptation would be to take Kharg Island. My temptation would be to do it; if that requires putting special operators on the ground to do it, I would do it. My temptation would be to basically obliterate the entire coastline where Iran is firing drones and missiles at ships, and then to provide whatever help is necessary in order to provoke a popular uprising in Tehran.”
That seems to be the strategy now.
This morning, Trump said:
<blockquote>They’re finished. But the papers, the media refuse to write it. They&#8217;re finished. We can walk in there tomorrow. We could take soldiers. I don&#8217;t want to have boots on the ground, but if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the whole place. They’re finished.</blockquote>
Declaring they&#8217;re finished is not the same thing as finishing them.
You need to close it out. That&#8217;s the only way to do it.
The Treasury Department is ready to close it out. Scott Bessent <a href="https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/2065052043442552855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2065052043442552855%7Ctwgr%5E7dbbc299142d28ff744c8d814fa17529695cec63%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ndtvprofit.com%2Fworld%2Fus-vows-to-use-irans-frozen-funds-to-compensate-gulf-allies-offset-hormuz-toll-11623151">wrote</a> this morning:
<blockquote>The Iranian regime will lose the zero sum game it is playing. Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from running accounts. And it also paid to the Persian Gulf state authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts. Every attack Iran launches will only deepen the economic and financial consequences it faces.</blockquote>
Buried in this tweet is one of the things that can solve the problem: a lot of worry about the Iranians responding to American action by firing a bunch of missiles at gas and oil facilities in places like Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. That has been the big concern.
But Bessent is saying that if they do that, we will just pay the targeted governments with Iranian money because we&#8217;ve frozen the Iranian assets.
With all that said, President Trump is going to have to overcome not only the Iranian military and government; he&#8217;s going to have to overcome people who legitimately dislike America here at home and want him to lose this war.

trump_khamennei_padded

The One Outcome The Left Can’t Stomach

Ceasefire

Iran Nuclear Deal

Inflation ticked up to 4.2% in May, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">4.2%</a> increase was in line with expectations, with analysts predicting a 0.4 percentage-point increase from April&#8217;s 3.8% annual rate. The inflation increase was driven primarily by higher energy costs as oil prices surged amid tensions in the Middle East. The inflation report showed energy prices accounted for more than 60% of the monthly increase in the Consumer Price Index, with gasoline prices rising sharply, up <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">8.6%</a> before seasonal adjustment. Shelter costs also continued to climb, rising 0.3% during the month, while food prices increased 0.2%. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s not a good number,&#8221; former Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/06/10/former-dallas-fed-pres-fisher-on-may-cpi-expect-continued-pressure-on-the-fixed-income-market.html">told</a> CNBC. &#8220;I think the consumer is under tremendous pressure, and we&#8217;re just going to have to see if this is going to abate.&#8221; 
Fisher added that if he were Fed chair, he would leave interest rates unchanged for now to allow more time to assess the economy.
Stocks, which are edging lower on the data, started the day with a downward trend after President Donald Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116725476229257491">blasted</a> Iran for taking &#8220;too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them.&#8221; 
&#8220;Now they will have to pay the price!!!&#8221; Trump added. 
After Trump&#8217;s message, Brent crude oil futures jumped to around <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-cpi-inflation-06-10-2026/card/trump-post-on-iran-accelerates-stock-sell-off-sends-oil-higher-HJ2tHQj71YFjmz2EFMxF">$93</a> per barrel. Higher energy prices have become the Trump administration’s Achilles&#8217; heel for inflation. Higher energy prices have become a persistent challenge for the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts to bring inflation lower. After nearly a month of conflict with Iran, the energy index rose 3.9% in May, up from a 3.8% increase in April.
The latest data continues a trend of steadily rising inflation since February. While Federal Reserve policymakers have signaled patience in recent months, the continued acceleration in prices could complicate the central bank&#8217;s path forward. Investors who had hoped for interest rate cuts later this year are now debating whether officials will instead keep rates elevated for longer, or consider additional rate hikes if inflation remains stubbornly high.

Grocery Store

Inflation Passes Unfavorable Mark For First Time Since 2023

Iran

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