From CNN, 3 hours ago:
How Trump’s trade war could quickly spiral out of control
Firstly a good description of how tariff wars are escalating crazily: how it will heat up further: then reactions from to economists and CEO's
Alarm in the C-Suite
There is growing concern in Corporate America about the fallout of the trade war.
The Business Roundtable said Wednesday that its CEO Economic Outlook Index has dimmed and CEOs have cut their plans to hire and invest.
The vast majority (85%) of CEOs oppose Trump’s approach to trade, according to a straw poll of roughly 100 major US CEOs at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute CEO Caucus.
The Yale event, held in Washington on Tuesday and featuring the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer, American Airlines and other firms, revealed that 94% of CEOs polled are worried tariffs will be inflationary and 85% believe Trump’s tariffs are backfiring.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, told CNN that business leaders universally believe there are legitimate reasons to apply tariffs selectively. But Sonnenfeld said CEOs are “angry” over the shifting justifications offered by the administration for Trump’s tariffs.
“The broad-sweeping assault on allies instead of adversarial and rival nations has CEOs dismayed and embarrassed,” Sonnenfeld said in an email.
Of course, it’s too early to know how the trade war will evolve — and what the ultimate impact will be on the economy and financial markets.
Foreign leaders may be reluctant to continue the escalatory cycle so as not to further damage their local economies.
“They understand tariffs are bad for their economies. That could be a natural break in this tit-for-tat,” said Lovely.
It’s also possible that Trump is forced to dial back the tariff pressure if the US economy starts to really weaken or if Wall Street throws an even bigger temper tantrum.
“The president is in a tight spot, and every tariff (or threatened tariff) makes his position more difficult,” Simon Johnson, head of MIT’s Global Economics and Management group, told CNN in an email. “If he keeps going in this direction, prices will rise and the economy will slow even further.”
edition.cnn.com/2025/03/13/economy/trade-wars-can-spiral-out-of-control/index.html
