Show notes
The headlines on the Wall Street Journal have been marvelling at the lack of inflationary pressure as a result of tariffs. The latest CPI announcement had the annualized rate at 2.7% against the backdrop of a weakening labor market. This is converging on the Fed’s 2% target for inflation.
We are looking at inflation because the Fed’s interest rate policy is linked to balancing both price stability and maximizing employment. If inflation is too high, they raise rates in order to suppress demand. If unemployment is too high they lower rates to stimulate investment.
Of course we know it is not just the rates which affect the economy, it’s access to credit which is infinitely more important.
We know that tariffs have been making headlines for most of this year. Tariffs have been in effect on a wide range of goods for many countries since April 1. There have been several delays to the implementation of tariffs which were designed to incentivize new trade deals with the US. Some of these have concluded and others like Canada and China are still in process.
Last Friday the Producer Price Index was published and it showed that prices increase 0.9% for the month of July. That's a huge jump in a month. Is this all the result of tariffs? No. The services component of the PPI rose 1.1% and the goods component rose 0.7%. Tariffs are not the whole story.
When I consider that companies need to maintain profitability, there are several ways they can do this. For example, retailers might hold the line on prices for goods that have tariffs attached to them.
But I think the cost pressure from tariffs and the incentive to bring manufacturing to the US will have two effects.
- Any new manufacturing in the US will take time to implement. In the meantime, companies will have to find other ways to cut costs. If and when they do eventually bring new manufacturing to the US, it will be very highly automated to minimize the impact of higher wages in the US.
- With the advent of AI, manufacturers will be looking for ways to eliminate other positions in the company and reduce headcount to improve operating margins.
The drive to save costs will accelerate the adoption of AI in companies and speed up the elimination of jobs. Strangely, this will have the opposite effect that the White House is hoping for.
So if inflation ticks up as a result of tariffs, can the Fed do anything about it? The answer is a resounding NO. Raising interest rates won’t make the tariffs go away. Increasing costs for businesses won’t cause demand to fall enough to suppress prices. So the Fed would be rendered completely impotent to bring price stability from an artificial imposition of tariffs causing prices to increase. You see these economic models assume normal economic behaviour. But if the model doesn’t explain the real situation on the ground, then at a certain point you have to abandon the computer simulation and look out the window to see what’s happening.
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