I’ve shared a few updates in 2025, though not nearly as often as I would have liked. I also pulled back from the all-consuming world of crypto coverage. Still, this year has been too strange to stay quiet. It has been a year marked by transition and uncertainty, with tariffs dominating nearly every market discussion.
Tariffs: Painful, but Productive
The idea behind tariffs is that short-term pain is worth long-term gain, a notion now being voiced more frequently by commentators. An op-ed in Newsweek earlier this year argued that tariffs may disrupt supply chains and raise costs, but that the payoff is in strengthening domestic production and remaking industries that were hollowed out by decades of globalization. As Mark Policy Advisor, American Compass, noted, “Making things matters. Historically, our greatness as a nation has been synonymous with what we have invented, produced, and built.”
As the piece puts it: globalization has “weakened our industrial base, eroded communities, and ruined job prospects,” and tariffs are essential to reversing that trend. Of course, opponents point out the consumer cost, with a Newsweek chart showing that higher input costs are already pushing up consumer prices, and companies may pass that burden on.
Still, the argument resonates: tariffs are intended not just as a tool for negotiation, but to protect American-made products and rebuild manufacturing capacity (even if slowly and unevenly).
A Personal Shift
I’ve noticed this in my own habits. The Temu/Shein days are over for me. Beyond the tariff price shocks, I was already uncomfortable with their labor practices and the way they flooded markets with fast fashion. Now, I find myself sticking with more local brands, walking into neighborhood shops, and buying in person again. What started as an economic adjustment has become a values-driven choice.
And I don’t think I’m alone.
Reports from earlier this year showed that Temu and Shein’s low-cost dominance has come under fire not just from tariffs, but also from mounting concerns about supply chain transparency and forced labor issues linked to Chinese fast fashion giants.
The hope is that over time, more consumers will make the choice and opt for products made domestically. After decades of globalization, we may finally be reaching a turning point — one where convenience and rock-bottom pricing no longer outweigh concerns about quality, sustainability, and fairness. It will take time. Whether this becomes a lasting trend or simply a temporary response to tariffs remains to be seen, but the shift, even if small, is happening in real time.
The Bigger Market Story
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues its long “wait-and-see” approach to rate cuts — a posture that reflects both caution around inflation and uncertainty about the full impact of tariffs.
Powell has publicly stressed the need to better understand how recent tariff policy is feeding into consumer prices before committing to lower borrowing costs. Market expectations have oscillated: while investors are pricing in rising odds of a September cut, some analysts caution that strong economic indicators may limit how much room the Fed has to act.
At the same time, borrowing costs remain elevated, and that is acting as a drag on investment sentiment and consumer resilience. The resulting uncertainty has left confidence fragile in many corners of the economy, especially among housing and construction sectors.
A classic but under-appreciated signal in all of this is lumber. Lumber prices have recently dropped significantly, with one report citing a ~23% decline since early August, prompting large lumber mills to curtail output. Inventory levels remain tight, and buyers are cautious, delaying purchases amid tariff uncertainty and softening demand.
Altogether, these data points (high rates, Fed caution, and lumber fluctuations) paint a picture of an economy in limbo: not plunging, but clearly restrained. Yet there’s a parallel narrative, one of gradual reorientation toward more resilient, domestically grounded supply chains; a shift that may take time, but arguably was overdue.
A Defining Transition
2025 may ultimately be remembered not for dramatic crashes or runaway rallies, but for its uneasy middle ground. Tariffs have disrupted familiar patterns of trade and raised near-term costs, yet they’ve also prompted a deeper reflection on what kind of economy we want to build. For many consumers, myself included, that has meant rediscovering local brands, small shops, and in-person experiences–choices that feel more aligned with long-term values than with short-term bargains.
Meanwhile, traditional signals like lumber remind us that fundamentals still matter. Supply shortages and rate uncertainty reveal just how interconnected the system is, but they also show that resilience often emerges slowly, through adjustment and adaptation.
This year feels transitional in every sense: not the end of globalization, but perhaps the beginning of a more balanced approach where domestic production and global trade coexist in healthier proportion. The discomfort of higher costs and delayed decisions may be the necessary pause before a stronger, more resilient chapter of growth.
In that way, 2025 is less about the turbulence of the moment and more about the groundwork being laid beneath it–a quiet reset that could define the decade ahead.
Kelly Ferraro is an events columnist at Grit Daily. She is the CEO and president of River North Communications, touting two decades of experience as a corporate communications and TradFi professional. She is also the chapter director for VNTR, and is a three-time mentor with Outlier Ventures. Having worked at Bank of America and Guggenheim Securities, she is well-equipped to design and implement media campaigns aligning with business objectives. Kelly began her career at a hedge fund, developing a love for numbers as they told a company’s true story. She is also passionate about the evolution of blockchain and believes transparency is the key to widespread adoption.
