TRADE WARS

Tariffs and trade wars make no sense. They raise prices. They cost consumers. They hurt jobs. They create uncertainty.

Business owners, large and small, cannot plan. They do not know what will happen next. They do not know if a tariff will be implemented. They do not know if a tariff will be taken away. They do not know what our country will do next. They do not know what other countries will do next.

They create automatic cost increases. Who do you think ultimately pays for those cost increases?

When business cannot plan, when business has to think twice, when business does not know what is next, business cannot make decisions. When they cannot make decisions, they tend to stop hiring and stop spending. As things escalate, it just gets worse.

We believe President Trump needs to be careful. We can control what we do but there is no way of controlling or knowing what others will do. So far, the “others” are sticking a certain finger back at us in a tit-for-tat, tariff threatening festival.

We understand we need to do something about the inequities of past trade deals as well as the current numbers. We understand there is intellectual property theft.  We are not so sure continued threats of more and more tariffs are the answer. We can promise you that if this continues and this escalates, markets and the economy would take a hit…and that would be a shame as things have been moving swimmingly…in spite of the massive debt and deficits which will eventually have a day of reckoning.