It's sometimes known as "the cruellest tax." Inflation--often caused by irresponsible fed gov't policies or local gov't policies that make it harder for businesses to start and survive--is regressive in the extreme, and disproportionately hammers the least fortunate. The World Economic Forum explains. 

Many products--especially if they're not a necessity nor a monopoly--have what is called elastic demand--which means that as prices go up, demand plummets, most clearly if substitutes are available. See airline tickets, restaurants, trendy clothing. Investopedia provides a primer. 

Even at the federal level, the cost of increased trade fees are likely to trickle down nearly completely to consumers. An Ernst & Young survey of 4,000 executives found some companies are planning to push more than 90% of the tariff costs onto consumers.

Reform California sheds light on the labor unions’ skeevy stranglehold on politics, with hundreds of millions in forced dues funneled into campaigns. Moreover, environmental law is wielded like a weapon, hurting home development. Future homebuyers in Silicon Valley cities like San Jose struggle under steep prices as a result.

Denise Kalm’s Right on the Left Coast analyzes California’s $20 fast-food minimum wage that was meant to help workers, but has spiked prices and axed over 10k jobs instead. In Silicon Valley, costs are high, automation is at the forefront of innovators’ minds, and job scarcity worries workers; it begets the question: Is this policy progress or a recipe for disaster? If it's the latter, Bay Area burger joints might soon be staffed by bots, not teens.

The Daily Caller’s associate editor Nick Pope reveals how a dubious Ivy League paper, backed by activist cash, swayed policy despite contradicting robust DOE research. Cornell’s Robert Howarth’s un-peer-reviewed study, claiming LNG exports outpollute coal, sparked Biden’s LNG terminal approval freeze, evoking Silicon Valley’s energy debates. Bay Area innovators want reliable energy for tech growth, so this discovery might stir up some change.

Small businesses are particularly damaged by lesser-known, often obscured local gov't revenue grabs that erode profits and stymie growth.  Tax consultants Herbein+Company explain.

Right now, CA law says that any tax measure on the ballot must clearly state the tax rate, how long it will be in effect, and how much money it will generate. CA Assembly Bill 699 would undo those requirements, making it easier to pass tax measures that sound great on the surface but hit your wallet later.  John Moorlack of CA Policy Center explains.

Far-left publication Dissent does a smart, fair-minded takedown of how governments create tax loopholes that reward the wealthy, furthering an inequitable and obscure tax system that nobody really understands. And makes everybody (except the top .001%) poorer.  From a book review of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, by Gabriel Zucman