Following one of the steepest market sell-offs in history due to his recently imposed worldwide tariffs, President Donald Trump today made the decision to
Following one of the steepest market sell-offs in history due to his recently imposed worldwide tariffs, President Donald Trump today made the decision to reverse course and lowered them to 10 percent on all countries aside from China. At time of writing, this contributed to the largest single-day gain in the Nasdaq since 2008.
For good reason, too. This recovery rally is as predictable and self-inflicted as was the sell-off. Over the last decade, there has been a steadily growing section of the American populace — broadly, but not exclusively on the right — that has been pushing for more trade protectionism under the guise of protecting American jobs. While there has been pushback — admittedly from politicians and groups generally more associated as “establishment” — there was very little to show for it.
President Trump, ironically, may be the one to reverse the tide on this. Having enjoyed decades of global free trade, Americans outside of academic and business circles have largely been able to cast off import tariffs to more of a philosophical exercise from centuries gone by. When combined with promises of restoring American jobs, increasing domestic production capabilities for critical infrastructure, and decreasing foreign dependency, it’s little wonder why many have found themselves moving in such a direction.
While some politicians in recent years have increased tariffs — notably Trump himself in his first term — they were extremely limited in their scope.
