Realitybites said:
Mothra said:
Tariffs have been an abject failure. It just all got passed on to the American consumer.
"Inflation in the United States declined in 2025, continuing a downward trend from previous years. The annual inflation rate fell to 2.7% in 2025, down from 2.9% in 2024 and significantly lower than the 8% peak in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."
The facts as reported by the Federal Reserve do not support your assertion.
A decreased inflation rate (from an already high inflation rate - if the Federal Reserve's numbers are to be believed, of course) doesn't really tell the story. The question is, did the tariffs increase the costs of goods, in some cases dramatically, and did those costs get passed on to consumers. The answer to that is yes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78x9256pn7ohttps://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/Studies show the tariffs also generally reduced overall U.S. employment and manufacturing jobs, causing a net negative effect on the job market.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/trump-tariffs-jobs-layoffs-economy.htmlhttps://econofact.org/are-tariffs-raising-u-s-retail-pricesAnd they barely made a dent on the trade deficit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ge4yxwnlnoIn other words, the net effect of the blanket tariff policy was to increase the cost of goods, which essentially became a sort of consumption tax for American consumers, who bore the brunt of the costs, a reduced job market, due to layoffs by companies attempting to offset the tariff prices and declining sales due to cost of goods, and a negligible effect, if any, on the trade deficit.
Yes. I think it's very safe to say the policy was an abject failure. I am not opposed to targeted tariffs in principle, but the way this was rolled out, with blanket tariffs imposed on a whim, was amateur hour.