CEOs and Normal Humans Are Starting to Agree: On Trump and the Economy, They’ve Made a Huge Mistake

So: Tariffs! One of the least sexy topics in history and economics. Your correspondent ignored them to the extent possible during his high school and college years on the grounds that they did not seem like they had been relevant to public affairs since roughly 1935. Ha ha, joke’s on him, and not just because he’s going to be paying $26 for an avocado next week!

That’s because, on Wednesday, Donald Trump said he will announce his biggest round of tariffs yet. (Tariffs are taxes on goods being imported into a given country, paid by the entity importing them.*) According to the latest reporting, it’s possible that the new tariffs could cover every country that does business with the U.S., or that they could, uh, not do that. And yes, it is weird that we don’t know more details about whether that will be the case given that this is all supposed to be happening in approximately five seconds. (The tariffs that Trump has already imposed cover specific goods imported from Canada, Mexico, and China. He also says that the previously announced worldwide tariffs on cars and car parts will go into effect Thursday.)