Trump Tariffs Terrorizing Terrible Teamsters?

Letter to Ephesians: “If tariffs are so bad” like the MSM & lib economists keep whining, “where’s the recession”? Indeed, says Gerard Baker, Armageddon’s either still coming, those imposed just aren’t big enough yet, OR the “experts” are simply DEAD WRONG & L’affaire de tariffs can come with benefits.

The above scenarios were recently proffered by the WSJ columnist after the paper polled economists who surprisingly estimated the US economy grew by about 2% in the second quarter, while core inflation remains below 3%, down from 3.5% at the end of last year. Things are so copacetic, he added, that the equity markets are reaching new highs after April’s panic attack. So, Baker asks, “Having broken most of the rules of politics, has Mr. Trump really smashed one of the supposedly iron laws of economics too? And, if so, perhaps the conventional wisdom is wrong after all. Or, waxes the columnist, “in their rush to emphasize the negatives of tariffs, perhaps economists have overlooked the countervailing forces at work.” That is, “the redistribution of the burden of duties between foreign exporters, US importers & consumers may be reordering the balance of benefit between domestic & foreign businesses and between companies & consumers."

Put another way, so far, it looks like foreign & US companies are largely eating the tariffs, too afraid to pass the cost or so-called “hidden tax” onto their customers. That’s pretty much what Trump predicted would happen.

Davd Soul