EconoSpeak: Tariffs and Inflation

[from EconoSpeak, posted by Kevin Quinn]

Jason Furman and Janet Yellen have both suggested that cutting Trump’s tariffs would  be anti-inflationary. But most economists agree that the incidence of the tariffs is for the most part on U.S. consumers, not foreign suppliers (pace the treasonous and ignorant former president, who crowed about all the revenues we were raising from China). So how is a tax cut anti-inflationary?  There is a supply-side effect, which is all to the good, but the demand-side effects may well wash that out. So get rid of the tariffs but reverse the Trump tax cuts, which Manchin favors, through reconciliation. Taxes remain the same, so we’ve neutralized the effects on demand; and we still get the good supply side effects of a more rational global division of labor.

Join Us for Conversations on Central Banking: Inflation and Monetary Policy

The Center for Inflation Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland invite you to attend Cleveland Fed Conversations on Central Banking, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, from 2:00 – 2:40 pm EST. The session topic will be Inflation and Monetary Policy.

Distinguished panelists include:

Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.

Catherine Mann, Monetary Policy Committee Member, Bank of England

Ricardo Reis, A.W. Phillips Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science.

The session will be moderated by Colby Smith, U.S. Economics Editor, Financial Times.

View the entire agenda [archived PDF].

You must register in advance to attend. Upon registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing additional instructions to join the virtual meeting and a way to add it to your calendar.

If you have any questions, please contact Diane.Roberts@clev.frb.org.