US: Treasury Sec Yellen To Warn Of Consequences Of Trump's Economic Plan

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is shortly due to deliver a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, warning that former President Donald Trump’s economic plan would fuel inflation and harm business. LIVESTREAM 

• Yellen will argue that the Biden administration’s ‘modern supply-side economics’ strategy has created the conditions for, “record small business growth and a historic boom in factory construction…”
• Without mentioning Trump by name, Yellen will say: “Calls for walling America off with high tariffs on friends and competitors alike or by treating even our closest allies as transactional partners are deeply misguided. Sweeping, untargeted tariffs would raise prices for American families and make our businesses less competitive.”
• Yellen will also argue that Trump’s isolationist stance will prevent the US from advancing economic and security interests, “such as opposing Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” and confronting China’s industrial overcapacity.
• The New York Times notes: “Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign products during his presidency, but his plans if he is re-elected would dwarf those moves."
• Vice President Kamala Harris' tariff plan is expected to track closely with Biden’s ‘high fence: small yard’ strategy that applies punitive tariffs on sectors and technologies associated with national security. The White House has paired its narrower tariff strategy with a push to ‘nearshore’ critical industries to allied countries, a response to supply chain shocks that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic and decoupling the US economy from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.