https://www.scmp.com/rss/519472/feed Maurice Obstfeld, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’,” Donald Trump told an audience at the Economic Club of Chicago last week. Judging from the thunderous applause that followed, many in the business community believe that Trump’s plan for comprehensive tariffs will help their bottom lines. At the same time, Trump and his allies insist that tariffs will aid American workers. But tariffs cannot raise worker incomes and business profits simultaneously because they undermine the US... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3283468/trumps-tariffs-would-be-disaster-us-workers-and-businesses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3283468/trumps-tariffs-would-be-disaster-us-workers-and-businesses?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:00:07 +0000 Former US president Donald Trump wrongly believes America’s trade deficit is an urgent economic problem. Worse, his preferred corrective – wide-ranging import tariffs – would damage the US and world economies, while diverting attention from the US deficit that matters. The external trade balance is what a country earns from exports minus what it spends on imports. Last year, the US trade deficit was nearly 3 per cent of its gross domestic product. For comparison, the trade deficit averaged 2.82... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3273298/trumps-tariffs-wont-tackle-us-deficit-really-matters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3273298/trumps-tariffs-wont-tackle-us-deficit-really-matters?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Aug 2024 06:45:11 +0000