On Tuesday, the stock market plummeted in the wake of President Trump\u2019s troubling tweets about the possibility of a renewed trade war with China.<\/b>
\nOn Tuesday, the stock market plummeted in the wake of President Trump\u2019s troubling tweets about the possibility of a renewed trade war with China. Despite Trump\u2019s signals on Monday that he was backing off of a trade confrontation with China, he doubled down on Twitter on the supposed inherent good of tariffs themselves, going so far as to dub himself \u201ca Tariff Man\u201d:
Trump\u2019s economic team has spun his knee-jerk protectionism as a tactic designed to negotiate \u201cbetter\u201d trade deals \u2013 but so far, those better trade deals don\u2019t seem to be stronger than the status quo ante. Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal points out that Trumpian tariffs have not affected the broader American economy thus far, but that the markets fear that could change in 2019:
While tariffs alone shouldn\u2019t destroy the economy, they certainly add weight to the burden of other problems: falling oil prices, slowing real estate markets, the flattening of the yield curve thanks to \u201chawkish\u201d comments from the Federal Reserve, and the sinking stock market. None of this is a recipe for economic health. We are now nearly a full decade into economic recovery. Investors are obviously wary that recovery may slowly be turning in a negative direction. President Trump\u2019s economically illiterate trade commentary won\u2019t help \u2013 and is driving American allies to ramp up their own trade barriers to retaliate.<\/p>\n