Awww, all paint is good paint! You just won't see any damage as obviously.
Well no actually, we don't. The domestic importer does. They can negotiate lower prices with suppliers, take the loss themselves or choose to pass on the increased costs to consumers. They can also choose to source domestically or with a supplier in a tariff free or lower tariff country.
The "it's just been uphill from there" is due to all of the money that was printed during the end of covid and Biden's term to pay for covid spending and the sarcastically named inflation reduction act. If it was purely do to a lack of supply(production shutdowns) prices would have dropped once supply was back to normal.
To an extent...however the shutdowns did have a very long lasting effect because of things like the IC supply chain... once shutdown, there is no catching up. We are still fighting lingering effects in those areas. But certainly, poor economic policy has made things worse.
