U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day introduced tariffs on imports from pretty much the whole world,
and the markets were left to pick up the pieces.
Stocks are down, the dollar index is down, but there's going to be more fallout in response to these tariffs,
and it isn't all going to be from the markets.
This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the FT News Briefing,
where we talk about all the things happening in U.S. politics.
I'm Mark Filipino, and this week we're asking, are tariffs a tax on America's reputation?
Here with me to discuss is a special guest, Ed Loos.
He's the FT's U.S. national editor and columnist.
He also co-writes our Swamp Notes newsletter.
Hi, Ed.
Good to be with you, Mark.
Good to have you.
So, President Donald Trump finally unleashed the tariffs he's been talking about for a while.
They ranged from a baseline of 10% to more than 50%, depending on which country we're talking about.
Why are economists so baffled by his calculations for these tariffs?
He announced them as a sort of the measure was based on a combination of a country's tariff rate,
its non-tariff barriers, sort of technical obstacles to trade, and currency manipulation.
He said it was sort of a sophisticated mix, and then you arrive at a number for each country,
and you harvest, because this is kind reciprocal trade that he described it as.