Letters to the Editor

Tariffs are pretty scary

Editor:

President-elect Trump has proposed tariffs as a fix for practically everything, but the reality is pretty scary.

Trump implies that foreign governments will be the ones that suffer because of the tariffs. Wrong! Tariffs are supposed to clear out cheaper foreign-made goods from the market so that you are forced to pay for more expensive goods made in America.

But it’s American importers who pay the increased costs. They pass the increases on to retailers, who then pass the increases on to you. Apparently, many retailers are already making plans to lay off employees and stockpile imported components, bracing themselves for much higher import costs.

Business organizations are predicting future cost hikes if Trump actually imposes a 60 percent tariff on goods from China and 10 percent to 20 percent on other imports. The National Retail Federation estimates that clothing prices will rise 12.5 percent and shoe prices will rise 18.1 percent. About 80 percent of our electronics come from China, and the Consumer Technology Association thinks the tariffs would increase tablet and laptop costs by a whopping 45 percent, smart phones by 25.8 percent, and video-game consoles by 39 percent.

Currently, grocery prices have calmed down with an inflation rate of only 2.4 percent. But Trump’s tariffs may send inflation zooming up again. An International Trade Commission report expects the tariffs will cause, for example, the cost of ground beef to rise $1.09 per pound.

It’s all happened before. During his first administration, Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese agricultural products. Just as economists had predicted, China then imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm products. U.S. exports dropped dramatically; for instance, U.S. farmers’ soybean exports dropped 75 percent in 2018. Trump gave farmers $28 billion of taxpayers’ money so they wouldn’t be mad at him for devastating their incomes.

So good luck to all of us. Estimates of what Trump’s tariffs will cost the average American family next year range from $4,000 from the Democratic Party to $2,600 from the non-partisan Peterson Institute for International Economics. If you need to buy a big-ticket item in the near future, try to buy it before Jan. 20, 2025.

Laura F. Sanchez

Los Lunas

Recession in our future?

Editor:

For the last 100 years, beginning with the Great Depression of 1929 and every time the Republican party has had complete control of Washington, they crash our economy.

By complete control I mean Republicans have the presidency and the majority in both the Senate and the House — a trifecta.

Republicans have had complete control of Washington four times during this period, each followed by a depression or recession.

In 1929, Hoover & 71st Congress, followed by the Great Depression. In 1953, Eisenhower & 83rd Congress, followed by a mild recession. In 2008, Bush & 109th Congress, followed by the Great Recession. In 2020, Trump & 115th Congress, followed by the worst recession since the great depression when the economy contracted 36 percent and 20.5 million jobs were lost.

I was personally hit hard with Bush’s great recession in 2008. I lost 35 years of retirement savings with little time to gain any of that back before retirement. Unlike the banks, who were “too big to fail,” I did not receive a bailout and, contrary to popular belief, it was Bush who bailed out Wall Street three months before leaving office. (H.R. 1424, Oct. 3, 2008)

Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law in February 2009, which helped us out of the Republican economic crash. Not a single Republican in the House voted for this act and only three Republican senators voted for it.

The 1953 recession was mild, perhaps because Eisenhower was not a Wall Street politician but the other three were quite significant. Is there a recession in our near future? I would not be surprised.

William Lumsden

Rio Communities