It is rare that we can watch the unfolding of a global economic downturn with such precision as we can today. With a 145 percent U.S. tariff on China and a 125 percent retaliatory levy by Beijing, the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship is effectively frozen. We have not even begun to see the consequences and knock-on effects, from the coming U.S. inflation shock to a potential reversal of China’s purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds. Other countries have gotten a 90-day reprieve after new U.S. rates as high as 50 percent briefly went into effect, but the threat of a worldwide convulsion remains. With every day that businesses and investors in the United States and elsewhere cannot plan their purchases and investments—or trust that Washington won’t flip-flop again—the cogs of the global economy move slower and slower.
0 coment rios: