Tariffs

NPR - The International Monetary Fund issued a warning yesterday that the global economy could face significant challenges as President Trump’s tariffs threaten to spark a trade war. The IMF forecasted that the global economy would grow 2.8% this year, down from 3.3% in 2024. Additionally, the IMF lowered its prediction for U.S. economic growth to 1.8% this year, a decrease from the 2.8% forecasted in January.

Goods from China face tariffs of 145%, bringing trade between the world’s two largest economies to a standstill, NPR’s Scott Horsley tells Up First. Jonathan Silva, who runs a company in Massachusetts that manufactures high-end board games in China, has three or four truckloads of finished games that are basically stranded due to the tariff hike. Silva’s customers, such as Target and Costco, have paused over $16 million worth of orders in the last couple of weeks. The high tariffs have left his company in survival mode.