Rarely have economists spoken in such unison. Even before Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2nd, the median estimate among the 48 who were surveyed by the University of Chicago’s business school was that Mr Trump’s levies would raise inflation in 2025 by 0.8 percentage points. Meanwhile, the president’s position is that, in his press secretary’s words, “tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries [which]…have been ripping us off”. The implication is that foreigners will “eat the tariffs” and leave America’s consumer prices unaffected.
