Expect Stamp Prices To Weaken Over The Next Few Months .

I think the point is that reciprocal tariffs are a way to force other countries to treat us fairly (or at least come to the table to negotiate). It's a leverage tactic. Unfortunately there can be adverse effects domestically in the interim.

Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. You can argue that they might be worth it, but there's no arguing that they cause prices to go up. Is the pain worth it? Depends on who you ask.

Been very amusing in the last week or so to see the creeping realization of the MAGA crowd that we're all in for a bumpy, unpredictable ride with significant potential downside. The cognitive dissonance and the resulting pretzeling to defend the administration's actions shouldn't be surprising; quite a normal reaction from folks who, deep inside, know they screwed up by voting for all of this. They're still in the majority of Trumpers, but watch their ranks swell in the coming weeks as the financial carnage spreads and deepens.

As for stamps - discretionary spending on hobbies dries up time and again during recessions, so softening of prices should be expected. Pretty much everything in the proverbial 'basket of goods' is about to get more expensive, so that leaves less money for stamps.

Not a great time to be running an auction house (unless you're at the very top end of the market, like Siegel). And we can expect a goodish hit to attendance for Boston 2026, too. Inbound international tourism is taking a nosedive, especially from Europe. Hopefully it will recover by next year, but it's a shame, particularly as the organizing team has been doing excellent work in putting things together.

That's the theory, but history has shown that they generally do not work in that way, they only cause pain. And in some cases help along a major depression. And this was done in the worst possible way, by simply taking every possible location and adding it to the list. Those penguins are mad now. And Lesotho???? What a joke.

I, for one, am glad we finally have a President with the intellectual chops to see how those penguins have been taking advantage of us economically. Such a thing would never have occurred while "sleepy" Joe was at the wheel.

Dale

How the heck did I end up on the MSNBC website?

It's far from just "MSNBC" at this point.

The point is that the slings and insults are unnecessary and typically not condoned here. A simple "I disagree because..." would have sufficed.

I thought this was a stamp forum. What happened?

Totally predicable - some folks are incapable of keeping their political views to themselves, and feel it is necessary to inflict those political views on everyone else. It happens nearly every time in topics like this...

Sad, really.

John

The entire topic is political; it can't possibly be anything else. Stamps are political too. Anyone who thinks that the one can be discussed on a subject like this without the other is just fooling themselves.

I agree. Time to lock it.