What price America?

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

A former associate editor with the Times of India, Jug Suraiya writes two regular columns for the print edition, Jugular Vein, which appears every Friday, and Second Opinion, which appears on Wednesdays. His blog takes a contrarian view of topical and timeless issues, political, social, economic and speculative. LESS ... MORE

Consumers in US feel the shock waves of inflation as a result of Trumpian tariffs

The White House MAGAdomo, Peter Navarro, walks into the Oval Office looking harried. Donald Trump is standing before a dartboard shaped like a map of India, holding darts marked Tariffs, Sanctions, H-1B Visas.

DT: But my tariffs were supposed to have brought in billions and billions of dollars into the country and made everyone MAGA rich!

PN: I think there was a small misunderstanding about how tariffs work. You thought that all those countries like India and China you hit with tariffs would foot the bill for the tariffs and pay us.

DT: Yeah, that's right. You tariff guys an' they gotta pay you for being tariffed.

PN: I'm afraid you got it a teeny-weeny bit wrong, Boss. It's our importers of T-shirts, and TVs, and shrimps, and shoes, who have to pay the tariffs, which they pass on to consumers, who end up paying higher prices for everything. It's called inflation.

DT: Heck! You mean to say Americans are payin' my tariffs? Why didn't you tell me how tariffs work? Aren't you an econolomist or sumthin'?

PN: I am an economist, but when I was doing Economics 101, I must have missed the lecture on Tariffs.

DT: I know what we'll do. We'll just get our Treasury guys to print up lots and lots more dollars which we'll hand out to people so that they can pay the higher prices an' get those supermarket trolleys full again.

PN: Sure, but it'll get them full not of T-shirts and TVs; it'll get them full of cash because it'll take a trolley-load of dollars to buy a single loaf of bread. It's called hyper-inflation...