Michael Strain: “‘Liberation day’ has arrived. Unfortunately, it threatens to liberate Americans from robust real wage growth, low unemployment and a good chunk of their retirement savings.”
“Trump’s tariffs are an economic emergency. If implemented, the US’s average tariff rate would be higher than under Smoot-Hawley. They would constitute the largest tax increase since the 1968 levies to fund the Vietnam war. Our trade partners would retaliate. By raising taxes and prices, they would erode household income and spending. Business investment spending and US exports would be hit hard. If sustained, this trade war would be likely to cause a recession.”
“And for what? Around half of U.S. imports are intermediate goods used domestically to produce final ones. High tariffs raise the costs of production for U.S. companies, hurting competitiveness.”
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