- Porter's Daily Journal
- Posts
- This Only Ends One Way: Hyperinflation And War
This Only Ends One Way: Hyperinflation And War
Porter's Journal Issue #138, Volume #2
Porter Stansberry
December 03, 2025
The Solution: A Business That Has Survived Both For 100 Years
This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.
Tariffs are a tax… The spending will never stop… Look at the budget numbers… Largest tax increase of our lifetime… Hyperinflation and war are on the way… Build your family fortune… Jobs numbers grim again… Oracle loads up its debt… |
Table of Contents
At our 2024 “Farmboree” – that’s the Porter & Co. Annual Conference at my farm in Maryland – I was roundly criticized for explaining:
Tariffs are taxes and, ultimately, consumers pay 100% of all taxes, whether they’re levied directly or indirectly
The spending will never stop – ever
Likewise, whenever I’ve written about these issues, many of our dear, paid-up subscribers have objected, mostly by parroting President Donald Trump’s talking points (which are economically illiterate).
Thank you for pissing off so many… I believe you’ll be completely wrong regarding tariffs and Trump’s ability to levy them. The people are learning and once they see the impact that they have far more money in their wallets they will never want to go back to a system that puts them in bondage. –Tom O.
Well, finally, the receipts are in. Trump’s first federal budget (passed by a Republican-controlled Congress) took effect on October 1. How does Trump’s budget reform the government, reduce waste, and eliminate the deficit?
Brace yourself. This one is a real shocker (sarcasm):
Trump’s budget has made our financial situation materially worse.
October 2025 federal spending was $689 billion (+18%)
October 2025 tax receipts were $404 billion (+24%)
October 2025 deficit was $284 billion (+10.5%)
– Comparison between October 2025 and October 2024. Source: Monthly Treasury Statement, November 25, 2025
Trump managed to both raise taxes substantially and grow the deficit at double-digit rates. That’s the worst possible outcome. Trump’s budget harms the economy (taxes are a cost of production) and doesn’t do anything to reduce the risk of a financial collapse – it makes it more likely!
These numbers don’t account for the total economic damage that’s being done by Trump’s taxes (aka tariffs) because they don’t show how many businesses shut down because they couldn’t pay the tariffs. But you are seeing that fallout in the jobs numbers.
Trump’s tariffs represent the largest tax increases of my lifetime.