Hello, this is Michael Moss.

Heather Crox-Richerson is traveling today, and her travel arrangements did not allow her time to read today's letter.

So I will be reading it in her place.

April 2, 2025.

Just five months ago, on October 19, 2024, the economist ran a special report on America's economy.

That economy was, the magazine said, the envy of the world. Today, stock market futures plummeted after President Donald J. Trump announced that he will impose a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States,

with higher rates on about 60 countries he claims engage in unfair trade practices, including

China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea,

as well as the European Union. Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures lost more than

1,000 points upon the news, falling by 2.5%. The S&P 500 dropped 3.6%.

Trump's erratic approach to the economy had already rattled markets,

which dropped significantly in the first quarter of this year,

and consumer confidence, which recently hit a 12-year low.

Trump waited until the stock market had closed today before he announced the new tariffs.

Then, in his speech in the White House Rose Garden, he said,

For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far,

both friend and foe alike. But it is not going to happen anymore. Instead, he said, tariffs would create the golden age of America. Never before has an

hour of presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much, former Treasury

Secretary Lawrence Summers posted.

The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now close to $30 trillion, or $300,000

per family of four.

The Trump tariff tax is the largest peacetime tax hike

...