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One year ago, President Donald Trump ushered in a revolution from the Rose Garden. On April 2, he proclaimed the arrival of “Liberation Day” and described a nation plundered by foreign trade that could only reclaim its riches through double-digit tariffs imposed on almost every country on Earth. “This will be, indeed, the golden age of America,” Trump said in pushing for the rebirth of American industry. “It's coming back.” Investors shared neither his confidence nor optimism. Financial markets plunged. A Treasury bond sell-off led to a spike in yields that compelled Trump to pause the reciprocal tariffs for three months. In the end, the Supreme Court nixed them, in a case that upheld limits on the executive branch’s ability to unilaterally apply tariffs on foreign governments. The scorecard is in and the results, with some exceptions, aren’t encouraging: Inflation has risen while the U.S. manufacturing sector has shed jobs for 10 months in a row. “The evidence shows the tariffs were not reciprocal, did not generate the promised investment boom, raised less revenue than projected, and contributed to higher prices,” economists Erica York and Emily Kraschel wrote in a blog post for the right-leaning Tax Foundation. |