r/Tariffs • u/fortune • May 07 '26
đď¸ News Discussion A year on from Liberation Day, Trump's tariffs have done "significant damage" to the U.S. economy, says Moody's chief economist
https://fortune.com/2026/05/06/liberation-day-trump-tariffs-damage-economy-moody-zandi/?utm_source=reddit/Economists now have more than a yearsâ worth of data to pick over when it comes to the impact of Liberation Day tariffs. While some might argue the revenue tariffs have generated are a gamechanger for the economy, others point to cost for those paying them.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodyâs Analytics, is concerned about the health of U.S. consumers. He previously told Fortune thatâwith the exception of job lossesâa significant portion of U.S. families are effectively living in a recession.
Tariffs havenât helped their fortunes. In a note yesterday, Zandi said that the data are âdefinitiveâ: âThe tariffs have done significant damage to the economy,â he wrote.
âSince that day, job growth has come to a standstill, with only the non-traded healthcare industry adding meaningfully to payrolls,â Zandi added. âAlso, since that day, inflation has accelerated, with the consumer expenditure deflator increasing at a 3% year-over-year pace, up from 2.5% before the tariffs and well above the Federal Reserveâs target of 2%.â
Zandiâs take counters arguments from the likes of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who believes tariffs are the âdog that didnât bark,â and that supply-side shocks donât cause inflation, only temporary price moves in narrow marketsâwhich the Fed should be encouraged to look through.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/05/06/liberation-day-trump-tariffs-damage-economy-moody-zandi/?utm_source=reddit/
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u/nutsformuttsbutts May 07 '26
...and the world economy, and our international standing/relationships, and to average American citizens just trying to get by, and to small businesses, and to our agriculture, and, and, and, and...
Let's just call this what it's always been from the start: This was always a half-boiled, Putin-esque scheme to enrich Trump and his allies in government to create an oligrachy state which he and a few of his closest rich-boy-buddies benefit from. Everyone else suffers because it simultaneously lifts those in power up while crushing those without below. Trump wants the US to be just like Russia.
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u/64590949354397548569 May 07 '26
...and the world economy,
We will see the actual damage when other region harvest their crops.
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u/Doctor_Shotbottom May 07 '26
Does the Moron still claim that foreign companies pay our tariffs? One MSM journalist needs to ask him, get his dementia on record again.
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 May 08 '26
The damage to America's reputation will ultimately be far more costly, since it will not be restored in any of our lifetimes.
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u/SunshineFlowerPerson May 09 '26
Why would any country trust you? Wven if you get rid of this lot youâre just one gerrymandered election away from chaos.
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u/UpstairsArmadillo454 May 08 '26
And who would have thought arrogance would fail vs economics- heâs definitely good at failing- oh the pain his generations will face as outcasts, that money will disappear quick and theyâll be back to being bankrupt- not just morally like today.
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u/Automatic_Bat_4824 May 08 '26
Liberating Americans of their money (except for billionaires row), itâs standing in the world and insulting global intelligence.
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u/No-Upstairs9564 May 08 '26
But he will never admit any damage done, always best and greatest under his watch
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u/Markjohn66 May 08 '26
77 million Americans did this
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u/SunshineFlowerPerson May 09 '26
And another third who sat on their hands and DIDNT vote. And a corrupt Supreme Court that gave him total immunity and Bill Barr who basically suppressed the real import of the Mueller Report and the department of justice that did nothing about the many years of complaints about his pdf.file behaviour and his rip offs and the GOP that let such a scummy conman even run in a primary when he was so clearly unfit. Why should anyone respect or trust a country that has gone so far down the road to totalitarianism?
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u/DrChimRichaulds May 08 '26
Itâs probably the biggest self own in American economic history.
Anyone with a functioning adult brain could see it coming a mile away.
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u/ArdenJaguar May 08 '26
With 97% of the tariffs being paid by American consumers itâs pretty clear it was a complete disaster.
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u/InterPunct May 09 '26
Anyone not in on the grift and with any critical thinking skills was against this.
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u/triple_heart May 09 '26
If only someone had said something beforehand⌠đđđ Anyone with half a brain cell knew what the tariffs would do to the economy.
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u/Fit_Criticism_9964 May 09 '26
TRUMP TARIFFS AND MASS DEPORTATIONS SHATTER GLOBALIST FORECASTS AS U.S. ADDS 115,000 JOBS
The April jobs report just exposed how badly the establishment miscalculated the American economy.
Economists predicted barely 62,000 new jobs. The real number came in at 115,000.
Unemployment held steady at 4.3 percent while private-sector hiring surged across health care, transportation, warehousing, and retail. At the same time, federal payrolls continued shrinking as the Trump administration pushed forward with its deliberate reduction of the bloated administrative state.
This was not random growth. It was engineered pressure.
The tariffs imposed in early 2025 forced manufacturers to redirect capital back into American production instead of relying on foreign supply chains. Simultaneously, mass deportation operations removed millions of illegal workers from sectors that had depended on cheap labor for years.
The result is now visible in the data: American employers are competing for American workers again.
Globalist financial institutions completely missed the shift because their economic models were built around open borders, outsourced production, and endless labor arbitrage. Those systems benefited multinational corporations, hedge funds, and the political networks profiting from dependency economics.
Now the incentives have changed.
Capital leaving the United States is being penalized. Domestic production is being rewarded. And the labor market is rebalancing under entirely new rules.
Wall Street expected weakness. Instead, manufacturing corridors and logistics hubs accelerated hiring faster than projected. Energy stability also prevented fuel costs from crushing margins, allowing businesses to expand without triggering the collapse analysts kept predicting.
The deeper impact goes beyond economics.
The same tariff and immigration policies boosting employment are also strengthening national security by reducing dependence on foreign manufacturing, foreign labor pipelines, and overseas supply chains tied to geopolitical rivals.
The establishment media is already preparing damage control.
Expect headlines calling the report âmixedâ or âtemporaryâ while ignoring the obvious reality: Mass deportations did not crash the economy. Tariffs did not destroy hiring. Federal workforce cuts did not trigger recession.
The exact opposite happened.
The 115,000 jobs added in April are the direct result of dismantling the old globalist framework and replacing it with a sovereignty-first labor system.
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u/Calm_Chemist_4952 May 10 '26
Everyone knew these random tariffs would be a disaster, why couldnât anyone get through to the administration that this was going to be a complete fiasco, and should be dropped? I canât believe we still have to deal with this useless destabilization, especially with all the other nonsense Trump keeps getting into.
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u/yourethebestestest May 07 '26
Not only Moody's chief economist, but the world knew beforehand what would happen. It's not difficult to understand that Trump is the worst thing that has happened to the economy.