How the U.S. Economy Has Defied Doomsday Predictions on Tariffs

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 2, 2025 | Linear Putzier

[Whatever Works]

Inflation is lower than expected after President Trump’s steep levies.

(The rest is behind a pay wall.)

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: inflation; tariffs; unexpectedly

[Whatever Works]

The intro sums up the info nicely.

[escapefromboston]

I’m surprised people are surprised by this

[deks]

more...
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When President Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, economists predicted surging inflation and raised the odds of a recession. Companies and consumers stockpiled to get ahead of price rises. Those worries now seem overblown.

Inflation, while too high, is lower than forecasts. And the economy continues to grow despite the steepest tariffs in almost a century.

[Paladin2]

https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/trump-tariffs-us-economy-impact-89a1ea8d?mod=mhp

[Red Badger]

Tariffs do not cause inflation.

Creating currency out of thin air doe...................

[Owen]

G is a significant variable in the GDP equation.

Right. Government Spending.

Do you realize how hard it is to get negative GDP when you run a $1.8T deficit?

[Vermont Lt]

Many of the tariffs were “add ons” to the existing structure. For example, for tariffs with Canada there were existing fees associated with the current treaties. The tariffs that were put on by Trump were for the things not covered in the original plan.

In other instances the companies are eating the difference.

Finally, there was such “front loading” that many items that now have tariffs were brought into the country before the rules took effect.

I’ve recently been looking at buying some clothing from Great Britain. They are having you put the tariffs onto the cost of the items, much like you would with a VAT. I’ve seen this on EBAY sales as well.

In the cases of companies like TEMU, they are going to get expensive over the next quarter. The elimination of tariff exemption on small packages is going to hit them hard.

[reed13k]

I think a good chunk of the tariffs are being offset by the reduction in consumer demand from the illegals being shoved out the door and the reduction in government spending on them as well. I’m expecting to see property/rents drop a little bit for the same reason.

[rellic]

I ignore Democrat dominated media.
Pravda is probably more truthful
than the New York Times.

[griswold3]

Oil prices are also a significant offset to allow suppliers to maintain their profit margins

[econjack]

In addition to the other points made here, people seem to forget that tariffs are on imports. People seem to think we import everything, which we don't. Don't want to pay the tariffs, don't buy imported goods. While some products don't have domestic production, most do, so make the substitution.

[paudio]

How long will these ‘frontloading’ or existing stocks last?

[Theoria]

Some how, China the worst offender, gets the lowest tariff rate. Too low to help encourage domestic production, and too low to keep them in check.

[central_va]

Tariffs = growth
One sided free trade = debt, death of the middle middle class

Get it y’all ?

[central_va]

Globalist pablum

[packrat35]

And you are right. As more and more are forced to leave, rents and housing prices will drop, along with the prices for many other things. DEMAND is a big part of pricing and having 30 million illegals creates more demand.

[Vermont Lt]

Still angry you can’t have a human slave, aren’t ya?

[ggboss]

Couldn’t see the article as I had dropped my Wall Street Journal subscription last month. One of the chief reasons was their unrelenting criticism of President Trump over his tariff policies.

So I don’t know whether it was the editorial dummies or the news dummies that came clean.

Economics, as a science, was originally called Political Economics. Something that escapes the Wall Street Journal people who evidently got their education from reading David Ricardo back in the 70s.