As the months go by since President Trump's initial implementation of tariffs, more and more mainstream economists and media outlets are admitting they were wrong. The latest is the Wall Street Journal, which has been critical and skeptical of tariffs for months. Now, the Journal is reporting on How the U.S. Economy Has Defied Doomsday Predictions on Tariffs. The report notes that inflation is "lower than expected" under the tariffs, while consumer spending and economic growth have remained strong. Not to mention the stock market, which has risen to record highs this year.
Mitch Kramer, CEO of Texas-based Fluent Financial, has been watching the economy closely since Trump's big "Liberation Day" tariff announcement last spring. Kramer believes many analysts were flying blind in their initial reaction to the tariffs. "We haven't really faced a tariff situation like this in over a hundred years, so I don't think people really understood what would really happen," he says.
Kramer also gives credit to President Trump for taking actions to alleviate many of the initial concerns. "When Trump announced the big Liberation Day tariffs in April, the markets responded very negatively," he tells KTRH. "He backed off those tariffs very quickly, so there was a delay, and that delay allowed companies to find other suppliers."
"When Trump backed off the initial tariffs, specifically with China, it gave people time to recoup and the tariff hit wasn't as big as anticipated."
Ultimately, it wasn't just economics but politics that also played a big part in the tariff freak-out. "In this very politicized environment, anything that Trump does is wrong for a lot of people on the left," says Kramer. "And so they're going to be critical of anything he does...so I think there is a bit of that sprinkled in there as well."
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