FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread, Economy

Daily Bread for 4.11.26: Inflation Up, Consumer Confidence Down

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:19 and sunset is 7:32 for 13 hours 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 37 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp:

A detachment of troops of the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, from the 6th Armored Division, part of the U.S. Third Army, and under the command of Captain Frederic Keffer, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 at 3:15 p.m. (now the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate). The soldiers were given a hero’s welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss some liberators into the air in celebration.

A needless war comes at a cost, both moral and economic. Of the economic cost, one reads that consumer prices rose 3.3% in March:

Consumer prices spiked in March as the Iran war sent energy costs soaring and took the Federal Reserve further from its inflation target, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday. Underlying inflation, however, was relatively tame.

The consumer price index increased a seasonally adjusted 0.9% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3.3%, pushed by a 10.9% surge in energy costs. Both numbers were in line with the Dow Jones consensus. The annual rate was the highest since April 2024 and up from 2.4% in February.

See Jeff Cox, Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March, as energy prices spiked due to Iran conflict, CNBC, April 10, 2026.

Rising inflation understandably leads to falling consumer sentiment:

Consumer sentiment fell in April to the lowest level recorded in the 70-plus-year history of the University of Michigan’s survey, evidence of Americans’ concerns that the Iran war will hit the domestic economy.

The survey’s initial April reading came in at 47.6, versus 53.3 in March. Analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting a drop to 52. The April reading is below the previous low point of 50 recorded in June 2022, when the economy was facing searing inflation.

See Matt Grossman, Consumer sentiment hits record low, Michigan survey shows, Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2026.

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): The Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.

Watch how Artemis II returned to Earth:

Artemis II’s crew of four have emerged one-by-one from their lunar capsule Friday after a splashdown in the Pacific. The three Americans and one Canadian set a distance record for space travel during their lunar flyby, surpassing NASA’s Apollo 13.

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, University

Daily Bread for 4.10.26: The Best Town Newspaper for Local Affairs This Year? It’s Been the Royal Purple.

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:21 and sunset is 7:31 for 13 hours 10 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 46.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1606, the Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter from James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

Twenty years ago this April, residents in town might have pointed to the Whitewater Register, the Daily Jefferson County Union, or the Janesville Gazette as leading (if imperfect) sources of local news. Few, if anyone, would have said then that the Royal Purple (https://royalpurplenews.com), whatever its strengths, was a leading source of community news off campus, especially news of Whitewater’s local government and public school district. (FREE WHITEWATER came along in 2007, and it has never been, nor ever aspired to be, a newspaper. This is a “website of commentary on politics, policy, and popular culture, published from Whitewater, Wisconsin since 2007.”)

In the years since, how the landscape has changed: Over the last few years, the Royal Purple has done a better job of covering local government (while also covering campus issues) than any other newspaper in this community. The stories covering public affairs are more solidly rooted in journalism, more consistent in coverage of local public bodies, and better written than competing news and media publications in our area.

The paper’s local election coverage is a good example (but only one). The Royal Purple placed all the local candidates for the Whitewater Common Council and the Whitewater Unified School District Board in the same concise, yet informative, story. Longtime newspaper readers know that’s a standard journalistic format for a reason — elections are about choices and choices are made easier through at-the-ready comparisons. See Eric Arguelles, Macey Hotz, and Lily Adams, Common Council, School Board candidates share priorities, April 6, 2026.

Throughout the year, the paper has ably covered local government in this town. Now here’s the kicker (for those who’d like to imagine otherwise): it has done so more ably than any other newspaper. The paper doesn’t publish all year, but it’s a fine newspaper for Whitewater during the majority of the year when it does publish.

Obvious point: this libertarian blogger has no connection to the Royal Purple, or any other area local newspaper or news site, except as a reader. I’m quite satisfied being an ordinary newspaper reader at a suitable remove from other publications.

The Royal Purple has become what this town needs: solid, consistent, earnest — yet lively.

If it’s not near the top of your Whitewater reading list, it should be. You’ll be glad to have bookmarked the site: Royal Purple (https://royalpurplenews.com).

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): The Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.

A new species of spider has been captured on video for the first time:

A new species of spider has been captured on video for the first time. Researchers in southern Spain are racing to learn more about the tiny Cryptodrassus michaeli arachnid and the ecosystem it inhabits.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Japanese Scientists Discover Unexpected Reason Cats Leave Meals Unfinished

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Cats leave meals unfinished not merely because they’ll full, but sometimes because of the meal’s scent:

A research group led by Professor Masao Miyazaki at Iwate University, Japan, has now shown that domestic cats may stop eating not only because they are full, but also because smell plays an important role in regulating feeding motivation. The study suggests that feeding behavior in cats is dynamically influenced by olfactory habituation and dishabituation. The study was published in Physiology & Behavior.

[…]

In further experiments, the researchers tested whether the decline in intake caused by repeated presentation of the same food could be reversed by introducing a different food. Cats were given the same food for five consecutive trials and a different food in the sixth. Intake decreased significantly from the first to the fifth trial, but increased again when a new food was introduced, regardless of whether it was more or less palatable than the original one.

Remarkably, even without changing the food itself, simply introducing the odor of a different food restored intake. The researchers also found that continuous exposure to the same food odor between feeding cycles led to a further reduction in subsequent food intake. However, this effect was mitigated when a different odor was introduced during the intervals.

See Rachel Gordon, Why Cats Often Leave Food Behind Even When They’re Not Full, PHYS.ORG, Apr. 9, 2026.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, April 14, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, If I Had legs I’d Kick You

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Tuesday, April 14 at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of If I Had legs I’d Kick You @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Psychological Drama

Rated R (language) 1 hour 53 minutes (2025)

With her life crashing down around her, Linda (Rose Byrne) attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband (Christian Slater), a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her icy therapist (Conan O’Brien). A Best Actress Oscar nomination (and golden Globe winner) for Rose Byrne in a stunning, exhausting disturbingly brilliant performance.

One can find more information about If I Had legs I’d Kick You at the Internet Movie Database.

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Local Government, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 4.9.26: Yard Signs

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 62. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset is 7:30 for 13 hours 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 55.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1865, Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

Each election season, Whitewater has its share of political yard signs throughout the city. A yard sign may simply represent a property owner’s expressed feelings, without any design to affect the outcome of an election. Political speech is often like this: speaking one’s mind.

As a practical matter, however, yard signs are a poor indicator of political outcomes in Whitewater.

First, it’s typical of local landlords (mostly if not exclusively right-leaning) to place yard signs for candidates on their properties. The location of these plentiful clusters, especially the ones on Main Street, are well-known to the community as student rental operators’ properties. (That is, they don’t represent the sentiments of the many residents therein, but instead of a few owners thereof.1) Anyone who’s been in town for more than a year sees this, so the many yard signs on rental properties are reasonably discounted as a false indicator of popular opinion.

Imagine the landlords’ thinking:

Behold, our utilitarian buildings lovely properties of multi-tenant individually-owned residences that will trick convince Whitewater’s voters as an astroturf a grassroots movement in favor of our latest set of disposable beloved catspaws candidates!

I’d guess that local landlords see the clustered placement of their preferred candidates’ yard signs as a significant electoral advantage for their candidates. It’s obviously not.

Second, yard signs are overrated even in a media desert like ours. As a form of campaign advertising, yard signs are a low-cost, but also a low-impact, medium. A study from Columbia University in 2016 suggests that yard signs influence vote share only slightly:

The study, “The Effect of Lawn Signs on Vote Outcomes: Results from Four Randomized Field Experiments,” provides what the authors conclude is the most comprehensive research on lawn sign effectiveness to date. The six researchers, led by Donald P. Green of Columbia University, worked with four campaigns in different electoral contexts to conduct four separate experiments. The experiments, together, focused on a total of 376 voting precincts in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The study’s findings include:

  • After pooling the results of the four experiments and examining their averages, it appears that lawn signs raise vote shares, on average, by slightly more than 1 percentage point.
  • Based on pooled results, lawn signs are “on par with other low-tech campaign tactics such as direct mail that generate … effects that tend to be small in magnitude.”
  • Signs, in some scenarios, do not appear to be as effective when they make reference to a specific political party or ideology.

See Lauren Leatherby, Do election lawn signs generate votes? New research, Journalist’s Resource (March 25, 2016).

One percent is something, yet not a huge influence.

Yard signs are part of Americana, but they’re unlikely to change any races in Whitewater.

I’ll take a moment to discuss another medium that didn’t affect the Spring Election outcome. Social media in Whitewater, and that means Facebook, was ablaze in December and January with posts that suggested a significant right-leaning local trend. Relying on those winter posts would have been a false reliance on sincere but, as it predictably turned out, ephemeral sentiments. Facebook burns hot but fast. A steady candidate, holding his or her nerve, can weather a political torrent on social media. Neither fickle human nature nor an edgy algorithm keeps its focus for long.

The closer you look, the less you see. It’s all a matter of the proper perspective.

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Newspapers, the Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, and a Particular Species of Democrat.

_____

  1. It’s still one person, one vote in Wisconsin, isn’t it? ↩︎

Secondhand sales of the iPod are surging:

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Local Government, Open Government, School District, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.8.26: April Election Results, First Pass

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 65. Sunrise is 6:24 and sunset is 7:29 for 13 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1820, a Greek farmer discovers the Venus de Milo on the Aegean island of Milos.

With Wisconsin’s Spring Election now over, I’ll offer preliminary remarks (beginning locally from the City of Whitewater and moving outward). Unofficial local results for all precincts below are from the election websites of Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties. Unofficial results for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race for >95% of the vote are from The New York Times.

Whitewater Common Council. Three Common Council contests for the City of Whitewater saw two incumbents (Orin Smith and Brian Schanen) re-elected and one new member (Gavin Kelleher) earning a seat on the council:

Whitewater Council At Large

Orin Smith1,081 (Walworth 920, Jefferson 161)
Aubrey Thompson861 (Walworth 700, Jefferson 161)

Whitewater Council District 2

Gavin Kelleher 190
Sean Liebherr 46

Whitewater Council District 4

Brian Schanen375
Chuck Mills210

Whitewater’s local government has been on the right path these last three years. Re-electing Smith and Schanen and electing Kelleher most effectively preserves the positive momentum the city has seen since 2022. This was the best possible outcome for Whitewater.

A ceaseless effort to deny evident municipal progress, sometimes relying on the use of non-residents’ false and ludicrous claims, did not obscure the progress that actual residents saw with their own eyes. In the end, truth is the most skillful advocate, achievement the finest rhetorician.

Doubt not, however, that the special interest men will say whatever they can, and do whatever they can, to control this city to their particular benefit. There are long years, and important work, yet ahead. One wakes up every day as a dark-horse underdog.

Whitewater Unified School District. In this race, four candidates (incumbents Stephanie Hicks, Lisa Huempfner, Christy Linse, and first-time candidate Terri Jones) sought three seats. Unofficial results show Huempfner and Hicks returned to office, joined by newcomer Jones.

Lisa Huempfner 2,053 (Walworth 1614, Jefferson 297, Rock 142)
Stephanie Hicks2,044 (Walworth 1543, Jefferson 321, Rock 180)
Terri Jones1,849 (Walworth 1447, Jefferson 279, Rock 123)
Christy Linse1,707 (Walworth 1289, Jefferson 272, Rock 146)

I’ve been a critic of our school board, and I’ll leave more particular remarks on that matter for another time. Whether there will be a change of board direction, toward a genuine embrace of open government, I’ll not venture beyond the expression that hope springs eternal.

Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Statewide:

Chris Taylor905,155 — 60.1%
Maria Lazar600,044 — 39.9%

In Whitewater:

Chris Taylor1,749 (Walworth 1,431, Jefferson 318) — 74.7%
Maria Lazar 591 (Walworth 489, Jefferson 102) — 23.4%

Judge Taylor ran even better in Whitewater than statewide.

Hers was also a more lopsided contest than even favorable polling (albeit admittedly sparse) suggested. Consider these figures from the Times website:

County typeLeader marginWho is ahead of their benchmark?
Large cities 391,831 votes inTaylor +60Taylor by 12 pts. Needed at least +48
Smaller cities and suburbs 645,852 votes inTaylor +7Taylor by 21 pts. Lazar needed at least +14
Rural 337,810 votes inTaylor +4Taylor by 23 pts. Lazar needed at least +19

In each geographic category — for cities, suburbs, and rural areas — Taylor significantly exceeded the benchmark vote that she needed to win. In Walworth County, where Trump won by 22 points in 2024, Maria Lazar only won by 0.9 points in 2026 (that’s zero point nine, an amount less than one percent).

Here’s the Wisconsin vote by county from November 2024 and April 2026:

I know it's risky to read much into state-level elections, but the difference in these two maps is pretty striking. The left shows county-level votes for Trump and Harris in 2024 in Wisconsin. The right shows the results of yesterday's Supreme Court race, where the Democrat won in a landslide.

— Jess Calarco (@jessicacalarco.com) April 8, 2026 at 8:35 AM

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Yard Signs, Newspapers, the Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, and a Particular Species of Democrat.

Whitewater is the work — and adventure — of a lifetime.

Artemis 2 captures views of a solar eclipse during lunar flyby:

NASA’s Artemis 2 crew captured these amazing views of a solar eclipse during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026.

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.7.26: Elections Are a Beginning

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:26 and sunset is 7:28 for 13 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1927, AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

I’ve read somewhere that today is election day in Wisconsin… Sometimes, in Whitewater, there’s a small flurry of schemes and lies in March that precede the April local election. We have not had that this year. (This year in Whitewater, the schemes and lies came along in February.)

This Election Day isn’t merely the end of a political season; it’s the beginning of a new one. It brings the commentary assessing the result and preparing for what comes next.

People choose freely. Afterward, one makes one’s way in the world of those choices.

Artemis II breaks Apollo 13 record with moon flyby:

Daily Bread, Documentary, Faraway Places, Nature, Science/Nature

Daily Bread for 4.6.26: Life Unearthed

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:28 and sunset is 7:27 for 12 hours 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 81.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM and the Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1965, the Communications Satellite Corporation’s ‘Early Bird‘ (Intelsat I) becomes the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

Ariel Waldman, explorer and filmmaker, has a new series on PBS: LIFE UNEARTHED. The first episode (Antarctica: Life at the Edge) is now available. Upcoming episodes include examinations of fireflies, wetlands, prairies and prairie fires, dry valleys with Mars-like conditions, and Antarctica.

Before and after politics — before and after this long conflict that grips America — the natural order. Sometimes, as respite and rejuvenation, even now.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.4.26: Maria Lazar Campaign Lies on Its Way Out the Door

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:24 for 12 hours 53 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1818, Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).

So, has Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor been ‘pushing noncitizen voting’?:

No.

We found no evidence that liberal Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor has supported allowing noncitizens to vote.

Taylor and conservative state Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar are running in the April 7 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

A Lazar ad claimed Taylor is “pushing for noncitizen voting.” 

Lazar’s campaign cited:

Taylor’s opposition, while a Democratic state lawmaker, to the Republican-backed 2011 state law requiring identification to vote.

Her introduction of a 2017 bill, which did not become law. It would have provided driver’s licenses to unauthorized residents, but the licenses would have been labeled: “Not valid for voting purposes.”

Taylor’s opinion, in a 2024 appeals court ruling, which said absentee ballots count even if voters’ witnesses fail to give election clerks their full address. Citizenship is required to vote in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin election officials generally do not verify citizenship when a person registers.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

See Tom Kertscher, Has Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor been ‘pushing noncitizen voting’?, Wisconsin Watch, April 3, 2026.

And look, and look — the Lazar campaign is crawling to Election Day. Multiple blood transfusions wouldn’t be enough to save that anemic campaign. This false claim about noncitizen voting isn’t about winning the election.

It’s simply a desperation move before the clock run out.

Why Trump’s Crusade For Higher Tariffs Isn’t Over Yet:

Daily Bread, Open Government, UW System, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.3.26: The Secretive Effort to Force the UW President Out of His Job

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Good morning.

Good Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 57. Sunrise is 6:33 and sunset is 7:23 for 12 hours 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1948, President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing aid for 16 countries.

The Associated Press broke the story that Universities of Wisconsin leaders are looking to oust system president who refuses to quit:

The president of the University of Wisconsin system said in letters obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday that he has been told to either resign or be fired, but has been given no reason and won’t step aside.

Jay Rothman, president of the multicampus 165,000-student university system since 2022, said in a letter addressed to the head of the Board of Regents dated March 26 that he has been given no reason why regents want him to leave. 

Rothman said he has been told that his options are to resign or retire, and that if he doesn’t then the board “was prepared to terminate my employment despite all that has been accomplished.”

[…]

In the letter addressed to Bogost, Rothman said he had not been “provided any substantive reason or reasons for the Board’s finding of no confidence in my leadership.”

Because of that, Rothman said, “I am not prepared, as a matter of principle, to submit my resignation.”

Rothman also refused to resign in a second letter sent to two other regents on Wednesday after he said they urged him to step down during a Tuesday meeting. Rothman said the regents told him if he didn’t resign, the board was prepared to meet this weekend to fire him.

Rothman said those regents also could not give a reason for them wanting him to resign or be fired.

See Scott Bauer, Exclusive: Universities of Wisconsin leaders looking to oust system president who refuses to quit, Associated Press, April 2, 2026.

A public action over a public official — including over his or her tenure — must be publicly and thoroughly explained. The Regents do not serve in a private capacity and so may not act in a private capacity on behalf of the Wisconsin state university system.

These are public actions all the way through. There may be sufficient reasons for Rothman’s removal; they must be publicly explained and adequately justified.

Failure to do so is disqualifying for those serving on the Board of Regents.

Artemis II crew broadcast from space:

The four astronauts on NASA’s lunar mission have spoken about their journey so far via video. Their Orion capsule is approaching 100,000 miles from Earth as it heads towards the moon, putting them on track to reach the farthest distance humans have ever travelled in space.

Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs

Daily Bread for 4.2.26: Happy Liberation Day

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:35 and sunset is 7:22 for 12 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2025, Donald Trump announces sweeping worldwide ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.

It was on this day, only one year ago, that Mr. Trump declared a ‘Liberation Day’ through his imposition of worldwide tariffs:

In a few moments, I will sign a historic Executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. “Reciprocal”—that means they do to us and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get any simpler than that.

This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence.

For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper and, in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt. And it will all happen very quickly.

With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you it [sic] happening already.

We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers. This will be, indeed, the golden age of America. It’s coming back. And we’re going to come back very strongly.

See The American Presidency Project, Remarks Announcing Additional United States Tariff Actions on Foreign Imports, Donald J. Trump (Mar. 4, 2018).

Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, and Chad Smitson have looked at the economy a year later. Among their findings:

The tariffs raised prices

Notwithstanding the tariff exemptions, the duties undeniably increased prices for American importers and consumers. Economic research shows that the higher costs from tariffs passed through to prices paid by Americans at a rate as high as 96 percent. The administration and tariff defenders often cite that tariffs did not lead to an inflationary spiral, but—as many economists have repeatedly explained—that outcome was never a serious possibility. What was likely—and what did indeed happen—is that tariffs increased the prices of tariffed goods (imported and domestic) last year, and they remain elevated today. Economists from Harvard Business School have examined thousands of items sold at major US retailers and found significant increases in their prices—especially as compared to pre-tariff trends.

[…]

Manufacturing jobs did not boom and, in fact, kept declining

Manufacturers reported throughout 2025 that tariff-induced cost pressures and uncertainty hampered economic activity in the sector, and employment data suggest that this also contributed to a slowdown in hiring. While manufacturing employment indeed struggled throughout 2024, the data confirm that—contrary to White House promises—there was no tariff-related hiring boom in 2025.

[…]

Foreign investment did not boom

Despite the president’s Liberation Day prediction of a boom in foreign direct investment (FDI), quarterly FDI has fallen since April 2025, with the US registering $72.49 billion in FDI in Q4 (Figure 9). Total FDI in 2025 was $288.4 billion, lower than the annual totals from 2021 through 2024, and far short of the rate needed to reach the president’s lofty goal of $18 trillion in investment. New FDI last year was even lower. Several firms and countries have pledged to increase their investments in the US, but such pledges do not show up in data.

See Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, and Chad Smitson, One Year After “Liberation Day”: Here’s What We Know and What We Don’t, Cato Institute, April 2, 2026.

Only America has sent astronauts to the moon. Decades after Apollo, that’s still true. We are a nation of world-historical achievements. This is reason to be proud, and to achieve even more:

Space.com’s Tariq Malik and Josh Dinner were on-hand to witness NASA’s Artemis 2 crew launch to the moon from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026.