Tariffs as corporate alibi for shameless price gouging reaches critical mass. Newegg’s deleted tweets exposed the game – slap a 10% geopolitical tax on imports, then jack prices 18-70% while blaming DC. MSI/ASUS transformed tariff math into postmodern larceny, hiking $1,999 GPUs to $3,409 before lunch.

The grift’s architecture: limited “launch stock” creates FOMO frenzy, letting manufacturers rebrand scalper economics as “supply chain adjustments.” ASRock’s manufacturing shuffle to Taiwan? Kabuki theater – takes years while current inventories bleed consumers dry.

Nvidia’s silence screams complicity. “Free market” fundamentalists cheerlead this extractive circus, where every tariff percentage point becomes license for exponential rent-seeking. Innovation now means inventing better ways to fleece PC builders between crypto/AI boom cycles.

These prices are insane, My 4090 is selling used for $2600 on eBay now, a thousand dollars more than i spent on it a year ago