Global economic analyst Rana Foroohar tells CNN that President Donald Trump’s tariff price hikes on Americans are inevitably setting the nation up for a blast, despite the president’s optimistic claims.
“For starters, the baseline tariffs that the U.S is putting on any number of countries have gone up exponentially. These are really tariffs that we haven’t seen since the 1930s. We’ve had trade deals, but even some of the countries that have trade deals are going to see additional reciprocal tariffs on new areas,” said Foroohar. “That’s very much a 1930s paradigm where you start getting these tit-for-tat tariffs, which ultimately led to a trade war and then a hot war. I take no pleasure in saying that.”
CNN anchor John Berman pointed out that Trump claims costs are down and the country will experience unprecedented growth, but recent reports show prices are actually up, and GDP in the first half of the year was 1.3 percent.
READ MORE: ‘Very jealous’: Trump ally says White House secretly ‘can’t stand’ this MAGA congresswoman
“Growth is not unprecedented. It’s not even that good,” said Berman. “So, are we already starting to see a strain here?”
“Oh, 100 percent,” warned Foroohar “… Let’s put aside Trump and all the things he’s done to create pressure in the economy. Even if that were not the case, even if we had a president that was not introducing political risk, not starting a tariff war, we would historically be in a place where it was about time for a slowdown, so we’ve already got that trend. Then you layer on all these other topics.”
Foroohar said other aggravating factors include Trump’s politicization of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and his repeated threats to push Fed chair Jerome Powell from his job.
“All of these things are just creating a powder keg, and really, every single market participant that I know is just wondering when it’s gonna blow. … It’s dicey. Folks in the markets are looking for a correction. Some of the big banks are telling clients, ‘don’t be surprised if you see even a 15 percent correction in the next few weeks and months.’ Again, I don’t want to scare folks, but this is pretty serious stuff.”
READ MORE: ‘Major trouble’: Memo claims House Republicans being ‘eaten alive’ selling Trump’s new law
Watch the video below, or by clicking here.
– YouTube youtu.be