This week in 1980 one of the most peculiar songs you’ll ever hear, Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" dominated the music charts. With its memorable bassline, insane chorus, disco beat, and strangely timed guitar solo, the song became an anthem against conformity. If you haven’t sung the line “We don’t need no education” a time or two or ten, have you ever really lived? We don’t think so.

Although it was the band's only number-one hit they’d ever have in the US, it was quite the doozy. Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters wrote the song as part of a three-part rock opera.  And it included a children’s choir for the chorus, which consisted of about 23 kids at a school near Pink Floyd’s studio singing into some microphones. No one remembers their names, but eventually they would receive royalties as session singers, claiming the song had earned the band well in excess of $75 million over the song’s lifetime.

The song also took off globally. It was even banned in South Africa after it became an anthem for school boycotts and protests of the apartheid education system. The song’s legacy still lives on today, ranking as one of the top 500 Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. 

This month’s economic indicators are a bit like that—peculiar, but in the context of a global tariff war, even stranger. They provide a fascinating local window into this global story. On the surface, many metrics suggest robust economic health:

• Gross sales have surged to nearly $930 million, up 4.3% year-over-year.
• Airport passengers have increased by an impressive 13.85%.
• Hotel occupancy is up 21% from last year.
• Weekly wages remain strong at $1,026 (up 4.5%)
• Unemployment stays remarkably low at just 2% (lowest in the US for a second straight month).
• Education and health services employment grew by 4.65%, highlighting Rapid City's expanding role as a regional service hub.

But beneath this strong foundation, there are a few cracks. Primary sector jobs have declined by 0.69%, building valuation has dropped sharply from last month, and new housing unit permits plummeted from 63 to just 23. The prime rate remains stubbornly high at 7.5%, while both national and regional inflation are ticking up (3.3% and 3.4% respectively).

Now add another brick to this wall: the newest wave of tariffs on foreign goods and European imports. The recently announced 25% tariffs on Chinese electronics, 40% on steel, and 10% on various European imports are being sold as protection for American industries. But like the wall in Pink Floyd's album, these economic barriers often end up isolating those they claim to protect.

Both the right-leaning Cato Institute and left-leaning Century Foundation know tariffs represent an outdated economic philosophy—another brick in a wall built on the myth of national economic isolation. In today's interconnected global economy, supply chains span dozens of countries and hundreds of companies. Manufacturing a single smartphone involves components from over 40 nations in a precisely coordinated global dance. Slapping tariffs on these goods doesn't "bring production home"—it just makes products more expensive for American consumers while inviting retaliatory measures from trading partners.

These economic walls aren't just costly; they're counterproductive. When countries impose tariffs, they don't just tax imports, they hurt their own exporters, disrupt established supply networks, and reduce economic efficiency. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2018-2019 round of tariffs reduced average real household income by nearly $1,300 annually.  Today's new barriers threaten similar (if not more) costs.

Despite these headwinds, Rapid City's commercial vacancy rates remain impressively low across all sectors (industrial at 2.9%, retail at 2.6%, and office at 3.5%), suggesting our local economy might weather these tariff-induced storms better than most areas. And our local businesses have proven repeatedly their resilience in the face of natural disasters, economic recessions, and global pandemics. 

In Pink Floyd's rock opera, the wall eventually comes crashing down when its builder recognizes its destructive nature. Let's hope our economic policymakers have similar clarity before these new trade barriers become just another brick in a wall of stagnation.

Stay safe and God-speed,

Tom