Ever since President Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs last spring, the liberal media has been trying to undermine them. Initial claims of a stock market crash, recession, runaway inflation, etc. all proved wrong. But they are still trying. The latest example is USA Today, which is running a new report claiming Americans bear nearly 90% of the total cost of Trump's tariffs. The report is based on a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which claims that 86% of import taxes levied by the U.S. were bore by American consumers and countries as of last fall.
Not so fast, say reputable economists. "I don't think you have to be an expert to realize that (USA Today) story is absolute hogwash," says E.J. Antoni, economist with the Heritage Foundation. "Just look at what's going on with inflation right now---core inflation down to almost a five-year low---so inflation did not get worse after the tariffs, it actually has gotten better."
"Right away, that should call all of these claims into question."
Antoni tells KTRH the study in the USA Today piece relies on flawed and cherry-picked data. "Their methodology has more holes than swiss cheese," he says. "They couldn't actually observe the amount of tariffs being passed through to consumers, so they used proxies...and ultimately the proxies don't represent what they're trying to measure."
In fact, USA Today also cites a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research saying only about 20% of Trump's tariffs actually reached consumers, which undermines their own argument. "Exporters are absorbing some of it, the importer---the middle man---is absorbing some of it, and so is the final retailer," says Antoni. "And at all these different stages, the vast majority of tariffs in most cases has already been absorbed by others, not the American consumer, not the final end user."
Photo: AFP