Jerome Powell warns on Trump's tariffs: High inflation could be here to stay

[UpInArms]

Source: CNN

Washington
CNN
—
Inflation is likely to pick up because of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, and could remain elevated, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.

“We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation,” he said at an event just outside Washington, DC. “While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent.”

Powell’s latest comments, his most vivid yet on the subject, come just days after the Trump administration unveiled the sharpest ever escalation in US tariffs on data going back 200 years, Fitch Ratings told CNN — even steeper than the expansive tariffs deployed under the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. A 10% tariff on all US imports will go into effect on Saturday, with even higher tariffs slated for April 9.

The US is about to have the highest tariff rate of any advanced economy
The US tariff rate on all imports would be around 22% — up from 1.5% in 2022.

Applied tariff rate, weighted mean of all products in 2022

Table showing that the US is about to have the highest tariff rate in 2025, far away any industrialized economy. In 2022, the U.S. had a tariff rate of 2022, in 2025 would be 22%, according to a Fitch projection.

South Korea
5.7%
Turkey
4.3%
Colombia
2.8%
Israel
2.6%
Norway
2.3%
New Zealand
1.7%
Japan
1.6%
Iceland
1.6%
Mexico
1.6%
United States
1.5%
20.5%
Canada
1.4%
Trump's 2025 tariff proposal would be 22% according to Fitch
22.00%



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/04/economy/jerome-powell-fed-tariffs-jobs/index.html

[IronLionZion]

1. Good job MAGAts

The main issue the claimed to care about and they made it much worse.

[gab13by13]

2. So is Powell saying

that he is giving up on inflation, so he may as well do as Krasnov wants and cut interest rates?

Powell may as well do nothing and just ride it out.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. No. Not at all. The opposite

You read this:

“We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation,” he said at an event just outside Washington, DC. “While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent.”

You read that and go 180 degrees the other way.

Not quoted, but the follow on is that Powell said he wants to be sure that they prevent a belief in persistence of inflation taking hold.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. It turns out Powell is a Dead-head and wears purple ties bc he likes it and now bc it is politically neutral

He says that in the late sixties, early seventies he knew every note of every Dead song. He also says that since then he has been "busy".

[UpInArms]

5. That's a nice factoid

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

6. I see FED keeping interest rate as-is, or more likely to raise rates to fight the inflation caused by Trump

Mmmmm.

Likely FED to NOT decrease interest rate.

Rather FED will hold or will INCREASE interest rate to fight INFLATION.
Inflation is 100% due to Trump’s tariff TAX

[Bengus81]

7. You didn't bring rates back down that much when Biden was in office when you should have....

Going to do the same with Trump or are you going to kowtow when he BITCHED like you did in his first term and quickly lower them back down and probably apologized at the same time??

Let's see how long Powell takes to hike interest rates under this NAZI regime with a DOW that's now lost 4,600 points since Fat Hoover took office--and in just 52 trading days.

[Mysterian]

9. I'm glad I got my "I did that" stickers before the price went up

[thesquanderer]

10. re: "In 2022, the U.S. had a tariff rate of 2022" -- you meant to type 1.5% (n/t)