U.S. spirit exports to Canada fell 85% in the second quarter of 2025
Canadian businessman and Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary is blaming the trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada for the temporary closure of a Jim Beam distillery.
Jim Beam, one of the largest makers of American whiskey globally, announced it will halt production at its Clermont, Kentucky, distillery for one year, starting on January 1, 2026. The bourbon whiskey brand plans to “invest in site enhancements” during the closure, according to a statement.
The announcement comes as U.S. spirit exports to Canada are declining, with many Canadians boycotting American liquor in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his suggestion that the nation should be the 51st state.
Even if we get the 37% or so of truly burdensome people out of intellectual debt, the best we can seemingly hope for is ~45 years before the entire nation forgets all of the hard lessons it learned and insists on relearning them again.
Here’s the progression: unignorable calamity (inspiration, debt) > society bands together (creation, true wealth) > conspicuously wealthy take unfair advantage (consumption, illusion of gains) > unignorable calamity, ad infinitum. Or to simplify: conservatives break things, liberals fix things, and neither learn a lesson.
Republicans haven’t spent the last half century attacking public education to no result. It was purposeful that they created the memory hole. Complacency kills.