Tariffs Catch-All

[ChileG]

The Dow is no longer over fifty thou.

It hasn’t been for a while, and is now under 49k.
The republicans want so bad to credit Trump when American businesses do well, but can’t see that he is the one holding them back.

 

[nycfan]

Despite Trump’s temper tantrum announcement, the U.S. has not officially implemented the Sec. 122 worldwide tariff increase from ten to 15%.

 

[nycfan]

“… Trump's tariff order argued that a serious balance of payments deficit existed in the form of a $1.2 trillion annual U.S. goods trade deficit and a current account deficit of 4% of GDP and a reversal of the U.S. primary income surplus.

Some economists, including former International Monetary Fund First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath, disagreed with the Trump administration's alarm.

"We can all agree that the U.S. is not facing a balance of payments crisis, which is when countries experience an exorbitant increase in international borrowing costs and lose access to financial markets," Gopinath told Reuters.…”

 

[nycfan]

“… Trump's tariff order argued that a serious balance of payments deficit existed in the form of a $1.2 trillion annual U.S. goods trade deficit and a current account deficit of 4% of GDP and a reversal of the U.S. primary income surplus.

Some economists, including former International Monetary Fund First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath, disagreed with the Trump administration's alarm.

"We can all agree that the U.S. is not facing a balance of payments crisis, which is when countries experience an exorbitant increase in international borrowing costs and lose access to financial markets," Gopinath told Reuters.…”

“…
Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council think tank, agreed, noting that a balance of payments crisis occurred when a country could not pay for what it was importing or was unable to service foreign debt. That was fundamentally different from a trade deficit, he added.

Brad Setser, a currency and trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a senior adviser to the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration, took a somewhat contrarian view, arguing in lengthy X posts on Sunday that the Trump administration may have a reasonable case that there is a "large and serious" balance of payments deficit.

He noted that the current account deficit was far higher than when then-president Richard Nixon erected tariffs in 1971 to address a balance of payments crisis, and the U.S. net international investment position is much worse. This "gives the administration a real argument," in favor of its tariffs, Setser wrote.…”