Blame the Next Recession on Richie Rich
Trust-fund brats won't stop spending on luxury goods and services. If they don't calm down soon, kiss that soft landing goodbye.
The economy is in pretty good shape right now. Rich kids may screw it up.
I’ve been writing for months that the inflation threat is receding. I wrote that even before the election, in which inflation was cited as the number-one issue, because, well, inflation was receding already, having peaked in June 2022. But did they listen? Do they ever?
Still, there’s one part of the economy that notably did not throttle back inflationary pressures throughout 2022, and that was luxury goods and services. For reasons I explain in my latest piece, I believe the culprits here to be trust-fund brats. You would think that a 20 percent drop in the stock market would discourage coupon-clipping layabouts from spending daddy’s money on yachts and Rolexes, but apparently daddy has so much goddamned money that these little twerps didn’t take notice. We need this cohort to cool it lest the Federal Reserve jack up interest rates so high that it deny us the recession-free soft landing we’re all rooting for.
Anyway, here’s my piece.
You want to curtail Richie Rich's conspicuous consumption spending, throw a ski-jump steep luxury tax on appropriate items, to perhaps be lessened a bit as inflation comes down. Daddy Rich may not begrudge his Brats their luxuries and have no problem with their profligate spending habits, but if there's one thing he hates spending money on more than anything, it's taxes.
C’mon, Tim, tell us the luxury brands that are now crappy junk. We won’t share.