Tag: Trump’s tariffs

‘Worst Self-Inflicted Wound’ Ever

Buck Banks

$4,000

“This is the worst self-inflicted wound that I have ever seen an administration impose on a well-functioning economy.”

— Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who said President Trump’s shifting tariff policy has increased the odds the U.S. will enter into a recession, the Wall Street Journal reports.“Yellen said the Trump administration’s tariff policies could cost the average U.S. household $4,000 a year.”

The Problem with Trump’s Tariffs

Buck Banks

“The problem with these tariffs is that their scale and indiscriminate nature will have the effect of destroying demand and destroying the capability to develop alternative supply. I suppose if the only goal is to hurt China then shooting yourself in the foot, such that you no longer need to buy shoes for stumps, is a strategy you could choose, but that does nothing to help with what should be the primary motivation: shoring up the U.S. national security base.”

— Ben Thompson

Trump’s Tariffs: ‘The Most Profound, Harmful and Unnecessary Economic Error in the Modern Era’

Buck Banks

“If you failed to spot America being ‘looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far’ or it being cruelly denied a ‘turn to prosper’, then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the president of the United States. … It’s hard to know which is more unsettling: that the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy. Or the fact that on April 2nd, spurred on by his delusions, Donald Trump announced the biggest break in America’s trade policy in over a century—and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.”

— The Economist