Fortune (January 18)
“The greenback dropped while precious metals rallied Sunday as financial markets started reacting to President Donald Trump’s new tariff threats.” On Saturday, Trump announced 8 European allies would face “a 10% tariff starting on Feb. 1 that will rise to 25% on June 1, until a ‘Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.’” His latest threat revived smoldering fears centering on “U.S. debt and reserve currency status.”
Tags: 10%, 25%, Allies, Debt, Fears, Financial markets, Greenback, Greenland, Precious metals, Rallied, Reserve currency, Tariff, Threats, Trump
Wall Street Journal (November 9)
“President Trump has a big tariff problem: His border taxes are raising prices on tariffed goods, they’re unpopular with voters, and the Supreme Court might rule that his “emergency” tariffs are illegal.” To win back support, he has just promised “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.” This latest “hail Mary” is founded on, among other logical fallacies, a “contradiction that Mr. Trump can both pay a tariff rebate and pay down the national debt.” The WSJ editorial board has “advised Mr. Trump from the beginning that tariffs would do economic harm, and so they are.”
Tags: 2000, Border taxes, Contradiction, Dividend, Economic harm, Emergency, Illegal, Logical fallacies, National debt, Prices, Rebate, Supreme Court, Tariff, Trump, Unpopular, Voters
The Guardian (August 4)
“The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has held crisis talks and the country’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.” Roughly one-sixth of Switzerland’s exports go to the U.S. and prior to the phone call “negotiators believed they had secured a 10% tariff on exports.” Instead, Switzerland now confronts “one of the steepest US duties – only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.”
Tags: 10%, 39%, Cabinet, Crisis talks, Exports, Keller-Sutter, Laos, Myanmar, Negotiators, Phone call, Plunged, Shock, Stock market, Swiss, Tariff, Trump
Fortune (April 8)
“The U.S. crude oil benchmark temporarily plunged below the stress-inducing $60 per barrel threshold on Monday amid tariff and economic slowdown fears, putting the nation’s record-high volumes of oil production at risk.” After beginning April above $70, oil temporarily dropped below $60 (NYMEX WTI). “Energy analysts see the $60 per barrel price as a key threshold when oil producers scale back activity and, eventually, cut back on production.”
Tags: Analysts, Benchmark, Crude oil, Economic slowdown, Energy, Fears, NYMEX WTI, Plunged. $60/bbl, Producers, Production. Risk, Scale back, Tariff, Threshold, U.S.
Barron’s (April 4)
“The tariff damage can’t be undone.” Many uncertainties still remain regarding the extent of their ultimate impact, how much the world will reorient to exclude the U.S., and the benefit the tariffs will provide China. However, “the scope, speed and magnitude of the Trump administration’s tariff blitz” made one point “crystal clear: The post–World War II global world economic order is no longer.”
Tags: Damage, Economic order, Exclude, Extent, Global, Impact, Magnitude, Post–World War II, Reorient, Scope, Speed, Tariff, Trump, U.S., Uncertainties, Undone
Barron’s (March 6)
“The Nasdaq Composite closed in correction territory as Wall Street sold pretty much everything in response to the Trump administration’s latest tariff rhetoric.” Both the S&P 500 and the Dow also dropped amid a tariff saga that has left investors shaking. “The uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariff plans have caused headaches for market participants. There are also fears among some economists that policy uncertainty will send sentiment falling further until it triggers a recession.”
Tags: Correction territory, Dow, Economists, Fears, Headaches, Investors, Market participants, Nasdaq, Recession, S&P 500, Sentiment, Sold, Tariff, Trump, Uncertainty, Wall Street
Wall Street Journal (February 1)
“President Trump will fire his first tariff salvo on Saturday against those notorious American adversaries . . . Mexico and Canada. They’ll get hit with a 25% border tax, while China, a real adversary, will endure 10%.” Should the president Trump persist, this will become “the dumbest trade war in history” for he would be imposing “25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason.”
Tags: 10%, 25%, Adversaries, Border tax, Canada, China, Dumbest, Mexico, Notorious, Reason, Tariff, Trade war, Trump
Washington Post (November 3)
“Donald Trump’s retro economic plan could be a disaster.” Tariff-reliant “Trumpian protectionism can’t create a world-class manufacturing economy.” Tariffs may be useful in narrow cases like “protecting certain strategic industries, such as defense. Indiscriminate, across-the-board tariffs, however, are a recipe for a less efficient, dynamic, economy and, ultimately, a poorer, less equitable society.”
Tags: Defense, Disaster, Economic plan, Efficient, Equitable, Manufacturing economy, Poorer, Protecting, Protectionism, Retro, Society, Strategic industries, Tariff, Trump, World-class
Wall Street Journal (May 11)
The tariff spat with China “is a political trade risk the economy hasn’t faced since the 1930s, and no one knows where it might end.” Although there “will be many economic losers,” including U.S. farmers who are getting hit hard, “the broader cost is a continuation of policy uncertainty, as CEOs and investors can’t be sure about their supply chains, their cost of goods and raw material, or how long the tariff brawl will last.” Ultimately, “the impact on GDP is hard to calculate but it’s real.”
Tags: CEOs, China, Cost of goods, Economic losers, Economy, Farmers, Investors, Supply chains, Tariff, Trade risk, U.S., Uncertainty
LA Times (September 17)
“A U.S.-China tariff war is sure to produce very real economic consequences, and political fallout, in both nations…. Whatever else one might think of President Trump’s actions, he is confronting China about its unfair trade practices and theft of American intellectual property when too many others shy away from the truth for fear of Chinese reprisal.”
Tags: China, Confront, Consequences, Fallout, Fear, IP, Reprisal, Tariff, Trump, U.S., Unfair trade, War
