Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will see morning showers and then cloudy skies with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:58 and sunset is 8:00, for 14 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:15 PM.
On this day in 1981, IBM releases the IBM Personal Computer.
Inflation, still measured accurately, continued to rise in July:
US prices continued to rise in July, according to key economic data released on Tuesday, as Donald Trump’s international tariffs shakeup started to impact consumer costs.
Prices were 2.7% higher last month compared with a year ago, according to the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the prices of a basket of goods and services. Though inflation dipped down in the spring, the annualized inflation rate jumped up 0.4% since April.
Though the inflation rate stayed stable between June and July, core inflation, which excludes the volatile energy and food industries, went up 3.1% over the last month – a higher pace than what was seen in June.
The report is the latest to show that the US economy is experiencing some turbulence from Trump’s unparalleled shakeup of US trading policy, despite insistence from Republicans that the economy is “firing on all cylinders”.
On top of a 10% universal tariff on all imports, Trump has set higher tariffs for dozens of countries, including the US’s top trading partners. On Monday, hours before a midnight deadline, Trump delayed enacting steep tariffs on China for another 90 days while negotiations continue.
Although many of these tariffs only went into effect 7 August, Trump’s 10% universal tariff, along with higher tariffs on certain industries like steel and aluminum, have been in effect since the spring.
Economists say that it takes time for tariffs to show up in consumer prices. Some retailers have been stocking up their inventory to delay the impact of tariffs and keep prices stable. But the jump in prices suggests that companies have started to pass down costs to customers, as leaders of companies like Walmart, Nike and Macy’s have said would happen.
Tariffs have also hit the labor market harder than economists had anticipated. Data released earlier this month dramatically revised down job figures that initially showed a healthy job market. The government had reported 291,000 jobs were added to the economy in May and June, but the revision brought the total down to 33,000.
See Lauren Aratani, US prices continued rise in July as Trump tariffs impact consumer costs, The Guardian, August 12, 2025.
How can this be? Didn’t Whitewater’s special interest men, these aged few with a few others they’ve brought along, tell you that Mr. Trump was America’s best option for the economy? They did say that, and on more than one of their rental properties they posted signs declaring their convictions:
It is these tired men who have, yet again, shown themselves as gentlemen of below-average understanding but above-average confidence. They carry on as though they have been granted a dispensation to say whatever they want without accountability for anything they have said or done in this town. (Any person plucked off the street in America’s smallest town could have done as well as Whitewater’s special interest men.)
It’s sensible to take them literally; it’s reckless (and silly) to take them seriously.
The most effective way to reduce costs would be for America to abandon Trump’s tax policies, tariff policies (a tax on consumers and businesses n its own right), and spending policies.
A dramatic lightning strike in South Carolina: