reagansghost
eternal
His impetuous, erratic pronouncements sow endless confusion. The monthly Economic Policy Uncertainty Index — maintained by economists Scott Baker (Northwestern), Nick Bloom (Stanford) and Steven Davis (University of Chicago) — has run consistently higher since Trump was elected than in the previous two years. Uncertainty makes it hard for businesspeople to gauge what they can expect to sell and what it will cost to make.
Trump’s tariffs on steel have hurt U.S. companies that use steel. Prices have risen 19 percent since Trump took office, making them higher than they are almost anywhere else in the world. That means soybean growers, who have seen their sales to China dry up, are also facing higher prices for their machinery, squeezing them from two directions.
As a candidate, Trump promised that the U.S. auto industry would thrive under him. But General Motors just announced it will close five North American factories and lay off 15 percent of its employees. Ford is ending U.S. production of sedans and is expected to make big cuts in its workforce.
After his meeting with Xi, Trump crowed that China would remove tariffs on American cars. But the White House later admitted there was no such agreement.
When it comes to his central goal of reducing the trade deficit, the president has completely whiffed. The gap has been growing, and in October it was the biggest since 2008 — and the largest ever with China.
The oil industry, which was booming when crude went for $80 a barrel, has seen prices plunge — something Trump credits to his cozy relations with Saudi Arabia. He has urged the Saudis to boost production to cut prices still more. But The New York Times notes, “The United States became the world’s largest oil producer this year, and a collapse in prices could hurt scores of businesses and hundreds of thousands of workers in the energy and manufacturing industries.”
The economy would be stronger and the outlook would be brighter if Trump had simply taken the credit for the good times and done nothing to disrupt them. But he can’t resist meddling.
The wisdom of Calvin Coolidge would have served him well. “Don’t you know,” he once asked, “that four-fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...jobs-economy-tariff-trump-20181207-story.html
Trump’s tariffs on steel have hurt U.S. companies that use steel. Prices have risen 19 percent since Trump took office, making them higher than they are almost anywhere else in the world. That means soybean growers, who have seen their sales to China dry up, are also facing higher prices for their machinery, squeezing them from two directions.
As a candidate, Trump promised that the U.S. auto industry would thrive under him. But General Motors just announced it will close five North American factories and lay off 15 percent of its employees. Ford is ending U.S. production of sedans and is expected to make big cuts in its workforce.
After his meeting with Xi, Trump crowed that China would remove tariffs on American cars. But the White House later admitted there was no such agreement.
When it comes to his central goal of reducing the trade deficit, the president has completely whiffed. The gap has been growing, and in October it was the biggest since 2008 — and the largest ever with China.
The oil industry, which was booming when crude went for $80 a barrel, has seen prices plunge — something Trump credits to his cozy relations with Saudi Arabia. He has urged the Saudis to boost production to cut prices still more. But The New York Times notes, “The United States became the world’s largest oil producer this year, and a collapse in prices could hurt scores of businesses and hundreds of thousands of workers in the energy and manufacturing industries.”
The economy would be stronger and the outlook would be brighter if Trump had simply taken the credit for the good times and done nothing to disrupt them. But he can’t resist meddling.
The wisdom of Calvin Coolidge would have served him well. “Don’t you know,” he once asked, “that four-fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...jobs-economy-tariff-trump-20181207-story.html
