Oh god, this move-fast-break-things thinking is going to kill so many people. We already have aftermarket problems with people adding in untested, unregulated self-driving features.
Yeeep, inflation right now is not a monetary phenomenon. There's also general corporate greed and ever-increasing monopolization, helped out by Trump's lax regulatory hand
Interest rates rising aren't going to fix these sources of inflation.
> inflation right now is not a monetary phenomenon
It usually isn't. That doesn't change that raising rates should slow down credit creation a bit. That reduces demand in a supply-constrained economy. It also reduces risk appetites, which helps in a perilous world. (Finally, it gives rate-cutting headroom for when someone levered blows up.)
And this same behavior is how Republicans prove their own theory that the Government is useless and evil and bad. Because they do everything in their power to actually make it useless and evil and bad. Do not blame this on the "EPA" as an agency. Put the blame where it goes: conservatives actively sabotaging government programs.
You're neithersidesing an issue where clearly one partisan group is doing evil things to actively make the situation worse and then "see, told you!"
Giving the benefit of the doubt to this President and his EPA that they are simply enforcing the laws as intended is foolish, irrational, and against all known evidence and their own words and policies and actions.
Why were so many people stealing Kia and Hyundais though?
"By failing to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, Hyundai and Kia unleashed a wave of auto thefts that cost Minnesotans their cars, their hard-earned money, and sometimes even their lives," Ellison wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "In short, they put their profits ahead of people’s safety."
As part of the settlement, Hyundai and Kia pledged to equip all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with industry-standard, engine immobilizer anti-theft technology, which prevents thieves from starting a vehicle’s engine without its “smart” key.
So,
1. Grand theft auto was already and still is a crime.
2. The car companies were being cheap and not adhering to industry-standard feature for basic anti-theft.
You should be thanking Keith Ellison for enforcing regulations that keep humans safe.
Auto theft was perceived as a crisis in the 1970s so cars added features like locking steering columns and immobilizers. I'd say by 1990 I had no idea how to steal a contemporary car [1] although I had a friend who owned a 1970s "boat" that didn't have a key to start it but instead had to be hot wired every time.
The real impact might not have been that big, I mean you get a few dollars a year discount from your car insurance for having an immobilizer, but people basically forgot that car theft was a problem and backed away from solutions in the 2010s, like I'd hear all these stories about telematic tricks to get cars started by making a fake key fob, relaying the signal from a key fob in your house, etc.
[1] I found out later that if you had "The Club" on your steering wheel that was advertised on The Rush Limbaugh Show somebody could use it as a lever to break your locking steering column!
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/aftermarket-driver-assi...
reply