America’s economy may actually be even weaker than it appears

President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plan was largely expected to impact the US economy’s first-quarter performance as companies loaded up on imported goods ahead of higher levies. But what few failed to anticipate was how much worse off the economy would have appeared without stockpiling.

“People are stockpiling now. That’s helping the economy now — and then they’re going to spend even less,” said Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank.