U.S. families paying more, and Trump’s Greenland fetish could make it worse

A new congressional report has it that U.S. families spent $1,625 more on daily living things due to inflation, and that’s not counting what happens if Europe responds to Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland by pulling the rug out from under the dollar.

Get your wheelbarrows ready to pour your greenbacks into so you can buy a loaf of bread at the store, basically.

First, let’s discuss the new report referenced above, from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, which tells us that the average household spent $1,625 more across the board in 2025 – including over $320 more in housing costs and over $240 more on transportation costs.

The reason: ahem, the Trump tariffs.

“Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. Prices for groceries and electricity are shooting up. Housing and transportation costs are rising rapidly,” said Congressman Don Beyer, D-Virginia, the senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. “Trump has failed miserably in the fight against inflation, and despite the fact that it is Americans’ biggest concern today, Trump does not even seem interested in doing anything about it. Worse, his policies – from tariffs to healthcare cuts to bad price-raising energy policies – are making it worse.”

Next, then, to the dollar on the verge of collapsing due to dumb foreign policy thing: a Bloomberg report notes that European countries own trillions of dollars of U.S. stocks and bonds, and Deutsche Bank AG’s chief global currency strategist is talking about the “weaponization of capital” as a strategy to counter Trump’s threats to seize Greenland from Denmark, a fellow NATO member.

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ICYMI

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U.S. assets held within the European Union amount to more than $10 trillion, according to U.S. Treasury data, with more in the UK and Norway, who are not EU members.

“For all its military and economic strength, the U.S. has one key weakness: it relies on others to pay its bills via large external deficits,” said George Saravelos, Deutsche Bank’s global head of currency research. “In an environment where the geoeconomic stability of the western alliance is being disrupted existentially, it is not clear why Europeans would be as willing to play this part.

“With USD exposure still very elevated across Europe, developments over the last few days have potential to further encourage dollar rebalancing,” said Saravelos, who, according to a report in Fortune, sees leverage for Europe ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, specifically with regard to inflation.

Saravelos sees additional leverage for Europe ahead of U.S. midterm elections with the Trump administration focused on affordability issues. On that front, the EU could influence inflation and Treasury yields, which affect borrowing costs.

“With the U.S. net international investment position at record negative extremes, the mutual inter-dependence of European-U.S. financial markets has never been higher,” Saravelos said. “It is a weaponization of capital rather than trade flows that would by far be the most disruptive to markets.”