Author – Breakthrough Retailing, How a bleeding orange culture can change everything!
January 22, 2025
Take a look at these selected quotes from the highly respected Economist Magazine’s article entitled: “Tariffs Will Harm America, Not Induce A Manufacturing Rebirth – Donald Trump’s pursuit of tariffs will make the world poorer—and America, too” [January 21, 2025]
“More than 90 years ago Franklin Delano Roosevelt surveyed the wreckage of the Great Depression. He pointed to one of its causes: sky-high tariffs had put America on the “road to ruin” by inviting retaliation and suffocating investment. It was a painful lesson, and it took decades of sustained global effort, led by America, to bring tariffs down and let commerce flourish. From our vantage in 2025 the perils of protectionism should still be abundantly clear. — Tragically, if Donald Trump gets his way, America risks repeating the errors of the past —-
Mr. Trump’s dalliance with tariffs in his first term already shows that they did nothing to narrow America’s trade deficit. —The record from recent tariffs also proves that they do not magically create jobs in American factories. Manufacturing as a share of American employment has fallen since Mr. Trump’s first tariffs went into effect —-
A monomaniacal focus on the trade balance has no bearing on the economy’s real strengths. Just look at Germany and China today, both running giant trade surpluses and both mired in lackluster growth —-
However, data from Mr. Trump’s first term demonstrates that the real cost of tariffs is borne, to a large extent, by American consumers through higher import prices. Besides, the banal reality is that tariffs will barely move the fiscal needle. — Even by Mr. Trump’s flawed logic, tariffs cannot both create lots of jobs and also raise large amounts of income for the government. That is to count their effects twice over —-
Mr. Trump and many of his supporters have taken to lionizing the late 19th century as the golden age for America’s economy, a period when tariffs were high, and growth was strong. That is a distorted reading of what really happened. Scholars have found that tariffs sheltered less-productive companies and raised living costs, Alas, it is Mr. Trump who, in his mangling of history and economics, is steering America and the world back to a dead end.”
My comment – The new Administration is dead serious about implementing massive tariff charges that will be paid primarily by the American public. This cannot be a good for the customers who will experience continued inflation or for businesses that are driven by the consumer’s dollar. Now, as if that is not enough to give you thought – Any inflation assumptions must also consider the impact of a successful mass deportation of the manual labor pool that provides so much of our goods and services. When supply is limited –Prices Increase — Buckle Up Folks!