Americans have thoughts about tariffs that don’t make any sense
Sure, they said they’re slashing spending, think people are going to delay major purchases, and believe the cost of living will get worse, inflation will increase, and the trade war is having a net negative impact on the economy. But maybe it’ll work!
They’re our tariffs and (mainly) your problem.
That’s one of the many different conclusions one could reach about Americans’ views on trade levies from a Deutsche Bank survey of 650 US households and 550 households each in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK from April 17 to 28.
Americans were more than three times as likely as Europeans to say that tariffs could be good for their financial situation over the coming year...
...and by a ratio of about 2.3 to 1, Americans think the trade war is having a net negative impact on the economy, compared to nearly 9 to 1 across European economies:
But when it comes to one clear negative economic consequence of tariffs — cutting or delaying spending in light of higher prices — Americans stand out as an outlier to the upside!
Obviously, tariffs are a hot-button issue with political overtones, and US survey data is littered with massive divides along those lines. It also probably matters that tariffs are something that’s happening to other nations rather than being done by them, allowing for a much more coherent, unified level of thought for European countries compared to the US.
Because Americans’ thoughts on tariffs don’t really add up.
