Despite a lot of uncertainty in the U.S. economy, research economist Thomas Weinandy of Upside said that the U.S. economy is still performing well as President Donald Trump reaches his 100th day in office.
Despite economic concerns, Weinandy stated that good employment levels are giving consumers the ability to spend.
"Consumers, they're starting to become more cautious and they're changing their behavior in a way that's prioritizing their own affordability," he said. "But at the end of the day, they're still buying different essentials. They're still getting what they need. They're just changing their habits about how they're doing so."
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Much of that uncertainty stems from various tariffs that have either been implemented, proposed, or called off. Currently, the U.S. has a blanket 10% tariff on goods entering the country, a 25% duty on steel and aluminum imports, and a 145% tax on goods from China.
The U.S. also imposed additional duties on goods from other nations, but the Trump administration decided to postpone those until the summer.
Weinandy said tariffs generally cause prices to increase, in addition to disrupting the supply chain.
"One lesson that I learned from the pandemic is that supply chains, they are sensitive to specific items changing," he said. "But in the long term, they are rather resilient. So, you know, toilet paper shortages, that was a rather short-lived phenomenon. Tariffs, they might cause some kind of short-term shortages, but I think long-term, we're still going to be able to purchase the everyday things that we need."
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President Trump has stated that his goal with tariffs is to raise hiring in the U.S. manufacturing industry, which has lost about 5 million jobs since the start of the century.
So, if President Trump is able to accomplish his goal of keeping U.S. employment high, that could keep Americans from feeling the brunt of the tariffs.
"There's some early signs that employment growth could be slowing down," Weinandy said. "But so far, it's still been positive. That means that I think households are going to be able to absorb some of these short-term costs and some of the uncertainty that's happening right now."
