Ernie Tedeschi
Appearances
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
I think that that's really where a lot of the market effects that we've been seeing have been coming from. Look, all taxes exact an economic cost. Tariffs are a particularly inefficient and economically damaging type of tax.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
But I think that you would have seen a lot less market reaction if the Trump administration had laid out a tariff agenda at the beginning and just said, you know, this is it and this is going to be the agenda going forward with no further changes.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Instead, it's the uncertainty, as you said, it's the chaos of not knowing what the tariff rate is going to be at the end of the week or even the end of the day that I think is creating a chilling effect on business investment in the meantime as they await for further clarity.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Well, but those two goals are at odds with one another, aren't they? The more success that this policy has at encouraging Americans to buy domestically, that is buying fewer imports, the less money it's going to raise over the long run.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
Conversely, if it raises a lot of money as a tax, you know, a tax on imports, that means it's not doing a good job of encouraging Americans not to buy imports, right, and to buy domestically. So these two goals are at cross purposes with one another.
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
I think what's going to happen at the end of the day is that no matter what they announce, very likely the American economy is going to end up smaller as a result of it. Probably other countries around the world, their economies are going to end up smaller as a result of it. And the same domestic politics that are driving the United States to impose these tariffs are
Global News Podcast
BBC team reaches Khartoum and finds overwhelming destruction
are present in other countries like China, Europe, the UK, Canada, Mexico. It's going to drive them to impose retaliatory tariffs. And that's just going to heighten the economic damage the world over.