Category World News

Donald Trump, president of the United States, claimed that his tariffs were already generating $ 2 billion daily. At the time, the actual number was $ 192 million per day.

Although imports have increased a little since then, they still fall short of what the president had predicted.

According to the most recent data from the US Department of Commerce, the US collected $ 285,0 in customs and other excise taxes for the day on April 25. The total has so far exceeded $ 16.1 billion in April. The US Treasury Department released a daily report on January 17 to bring in $ 128 million, which is an increase over the previous day of former president Joe Biden’s reign.

Trump had threatened to impose “retaliatory tariffs” on almost all of its global trading partners. Due to China’s involvement in the fentanyl trade, Trump claimed, the country maintained its highest, which was 125 percent, in addition to an earlier 20 percent rate.

He imposed a 10% levy on all US imports on April 9 and put a stop to the retaliatory tariffs on April 9 by excluding China. Additionally, he continued to impose tariffs that he had instituted in March on imports of potash, steel, aluminum, and cars, which are now generating US revenue. Trump stated on Tuesday that his goal was to lower some auto tariffs, and that businesses that pay them would no longer be subject to additional levies, such as those on aluminum and steel, with reimbursements in the works for those tariffs that had already been paid.

Beijing has since imposed 125 percent tariffs on the US. Both sides have since made a small reversal. According to media reports, the US exempted some Chinese electronic imports from its tariffs, and China was considering exempting some of them.

The US consumer is likely to weigh a lot of this. The American public currently has the highest average tariff rate in more than a century, at 28%, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

lasting effect

Before Trump took office, tariffs were still imposed on a wide range of products, from electric vehicles to lumber.

Additionally, the Biden administration was strict with Chinese goods. Biden imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, a 50% tariff on semiconductor chips, and a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles in 2024. However, the action was a continuation of a tariff plan put in place during Trump’s first term.

Trump had already imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel in 2018, and 10 percent on aluminum immediately followed. Trump lifted those tariffs on Mexico and Canada in 2019. As steel prices rose as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden reversed tariffs that Trump had suggested specifically for the European Union in 2021.

Biden also increased lumber tariffs on Canada, which have long been a source of conflict between the two countries, to 14.5 percent in 2024 from the previous year’s 8. 5 percent. In the upcoming months, those tariffs are anticipated to increase to 34.5 percent.

The National Association of Home Builders criticized the lumber tariffs as “detrimental” in response to the US’s current housing crisis. However, those difficulties first appeared in 2017 when the first Trump administration implemented a 20% tariff that was later reduced to an 8.5% level in April 2022.

Following the widespread economic sanctions, including a 35 percent tariff on some Russian imports in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration also imposed other notable tariffs. Similar tariffs were imposed on other countries, such as Canada and the UK, at 35%.

looming tariff jitters

Wall Street and Main Street are both on the edge of Trump’s tariffs, which have affected the rest of the world. This month, the US Commerce Department released a report on consumer spending that revealed a 1.4% increase over the previous month’s figure. Although that would typically indicate an improvement in the economy, economists believe that this time can be attributed to consumers’ spending on important goods before the new tariffs cause prices to rise.

Consumer confidence is slipping in other data. The March consumer sentiment index, released on April 11 for the University of Michigan, decreased by 11% from the previous month. Consumer confidence dropped to a 12-year low, according to a report from the Conference Board in March.

Automobile companies have already started hiring and firings. Due to uncertainty surrounding tariffs, General Motors and Stellantis both fired 900 employees this month. Due to the tariffs, Volvo announced it would reduce 800 US jobs. By the end of the year, the US’s Budget Lab anticipates that the tariffs will cost 770, 000 jobs.

Following a massive, hour-long blackout, people cheered and danced in Spain’s streets. By early Tuesday, Spain and Portugal, both of which had been hit, were nearly at their peak. The reason behind the interruption is still undetermined.

My siblings and I frequently spent our pocket money on new books when we were younger. Our mother had a fervent love for books instilled in us. Reading was more than just a pastime; it was also a way of life.

I can still recall our parents’ surprise gift of a home library to us. They had placed numerous shelves in the living room, making it tall and wide. Even though I was only five years old, I immediately recognized the sacredness of its location.

My father had a burning desire to have books on philosophy, religion, politics, languages, science, literature, etc. on the shelves. He desired a large selection of books that could rival those at the neighborhood library.

One of Gaza’s most recognizable bookshops, the Samir Mansour Library, was where my parents frequently took us. Each book would be able to be picked up by us.

Our schools organized reading events, reading clubs, and panel discussions to foster this love of reading.

Our home library became our friend, a source of comfort during war and peace, and a lifeline during those dark, eerie nights surrounded only by bombs. We would recite the poems of Mahmoud Darwish that we had memorized from books in our library while chatting about the works of Ghassan Kanafani while reciting the poems from our library.

The blockade on Gaza was enacted at an intolerable level when the genocide first started in October 2023. There was no shortage of nutritious food, fuel, medicines, and water.

People started burning anything they could find, including books, tree branches, and wood from the rubble of homes.

This was the first time my brother’s family encountered this. Their family could use the heavy-heartedness of my nephews’ sacrifice for their academic future: they burned their newly printed schoolbooks whose ink hadn’t even dried. The same books that once fed their minds are now feeding the flames in search of survival.

My 11-year-old nephew Ahmed confronted me with the reality despite my horror at the book’s burning. Either we starve to death or become illiterates. I’ll make the choice to live. He said that education will resume later. His response completely shook me.

Even though the price of wood was skyrocketing, I insisted that we buy it when we ran out of gas. When the war is over, my father promised to buy you every book you want, but he failed. But for the moment, let’s use these. I resisted despite my best efforts.

Our ups and downs, our laughter, our tears, our triumphs, and our setbacks were all reflected in those books. How are they going to burn them? I began to read some of our books once, twice, three times, memorizing their titles, pages, and cover names, burying my fear that our library might be the place to make the next sacrifice.

Cooking gas was finally permitted into Gaza in January after a temporary truce had been declared. I sigh of relief knowing that my books and I had survived this Holocaust.

The genocide then resumed in the first few days of March. No food, medical supplies, or fuel could enter without a blockade humanitarian aid. In less than three weeks, we ran out of gas. Without other sources of fuel for cooking, due to the complete blockade and the extensive bombardment.

I had to accept that I had no choice. I glanced through the international human rights law books as I approached our library. They had to come first, I figured. These legal principles were taught in schools to us, and they led to our liberation one day. We were made to believe that our Palestinian rights were protected by them.

Yet, we were never protected by these international laws. We have been a victim of genocide. There is no international law, no ethics, and no value for human life there. Zaza has been teleported to another moral dimension.

I tore those pages apart in an effort to recall how numerous families had been torn apart by bombs in the past. The torn pages were set on fire as I watched them go to the dust, offering an agonizing tribute to those who had been killed in the attacks on Al-Aqsa Hospital, journalist Ahmed Mansour, and countless others whose names we will never know.

Next, my brother, a graduate in pharmacology, burned all of his pharmacology books and summaries. His years of hard work were the fuel for the preparation of our canned food. Still, it was insufficient. The fires devoured book after book shelf after book as the siege grew more suffocating. Before touching any of mine, my brother demanded that he burn his favorite books.

But the inevitable was present. Soon, my books were all we had left. I was forced to burn my dearly cherished collections of poetry by Mahmoud Darwish, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Samih al-Qasim, the voice of resistance, Abdelrahman Munif, and the Harry Potter books I had spent my teenage years reading. Then, my medical reports and summaries arrived.

My heart started to burn as I watched the flames burn them. Making the sacrifice feel commendable, we prepared a more decadent meal, including pasta and bechamel sauce.

My father went even further than I thought, and I believed that was my sacrifice’s peak. He burned the library’s shelves as wood after removing them.

15 books were saved by me. These are historical works about the Palestinian cause, our ancestors’ tales, and my grandmother’s books, both of whom were brutally murdered during this genocide.

These books provide my proof that my family has always lived here, in Palestine, and that we have always been the landowners. Existence is resistance.

In our worst nightmares, the horror of the genocide has compelled us to do things that we never thought possible. In order to survive, it required us to mutilate our memories and destroy the unbreakable.

But if we survive, we will rebuild if we do so. We’ll start a new home library and restock it with the books we adore.

Donald Trump, president of the United States, has been making hyming about the US economy’s performance since taking office in January.

“In the first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country”, Trump (falsely) said on April 17 while meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In his first term, which will run from 2016 to 2020, he continued, “I think we’re going to do even better this time.”

He&nbsp stated at a Cabinet meeting on March 24 that “we have numbers and job generation that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.” See how it works out, but I think the economy is going to go through the roof”.

Trump hasn’t gathered enough economic data to be elected. The employment and inflation data available are encouraging. Other measurables, though – consumer confidence, business expectations, inflation forecasts and the stock market – show widespread concern about where the US economy is headed under his policies, especially his sharp tariff increases. And the US suffered the worst stock market decline since 1932, when the country was hit by the Great Depression.

Since January, there have been 345, 000 jobs, which is up from the previous year’s rate. The unemployment rate is 4.2 percent, a low level by historical standards, and initial unemployment claims are holding steady. In addition, inflation, one of Trump’s key 2024 campaign themes, has dropped from 3.0 percent in January to 2.4 percent in March.

Consumers and businesses expressed concern that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices, bring on a recession, or both in a number of long-running surveys. Economists consider these metrics as barometers of how well the economy will perform in the near and medium term.

According to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum, “everything is bad, even though it hasn’t yet bled through the hard data.”

Business owners claim to already feel the pinch.

David Dennison, director of the Original Pancake House restaurant chain in suburban Washington, DC, said costs have increased by more than 20 percent on food items such as oranges, peppers, avocados and tomatoes.

“We anticipate that significant price increases will be experienced by equipment failures, parts, and new equipment,” Dennison said. The most concerning aspect of our equipment’s upcoming difficulties is, “… sourcing parts for our equipment.

Worried consumers and skittish businesses could produce a slowdown in spending, investment, sales and employment growth, meaning bad vibes could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Dean Baker, co-founder of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Consumer opinion is declining.

Both surveys have been measuring consumer confidence for Trump’s first 100 days, and neither one has changed in decades.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey, which measures consumer optimism about the economy, has dropped every month since December 2024. The April reading of 52.2 is a 29 percent decrease from December 2024. The inflation rate in mid-2022, which had been at a 40-year high, was lower than it was for all but two months of Joe Biden’s presidency.

The other long-running survey is published by the Conference Board, a business research group. On Trump’s watch, this metric has also decreased monthly, with the current reading 15 percent lower than it was in December 2024.

This is in line with other polls. For the first time since at least 2001, the pollster Gallup found that more than half of Americans say their financial situation is getting worse. The figure of 53% for April is higher than the maximum of 49 percent it was during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009.

Small businesses, who have historically been anti-tax and anti-regulatory and had high hopes for Trump’s agenda, also show declining confidence under Trump.

The National Federation of Independent Business survey of small business optimism has dropped every month since December 2024 and decreased more than 7 percent since then.

Expectations of inflation are rising rapidly.

The expectation that Trump’s tariffs will raise consumer prices is one of the main factors lowering consumer confidence.

Every month, the University of Michigan survey asks consumers about their inflation expectations for the coming 12 months. Consumer expectations for the upcoming year’s inflation rate have increased significantly, from the previous year’s forecast of 2.8% year-over-year inflation to 6.5% in April.

According to a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta analysis every month, businesses feel the same way. In December 2024, the study found that 32 percent of businesses said they expected “significant” or “very significant” price increases over the next 12 months. That percentage had increased by 46% by April.

Additionally, manufacturers were questioned about their current spending patterns by a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey. The survey found a growing number of businesses that say they are paying more and a declining number saying they’re paying less. The gap increased from 26.6% in December to 51% in April.

The outlook for economic growth is declining.

Every quarter, the Atlanta Fed releases GDPNow, a forecast of how much growth is expected in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the sum of all economic activity within the country – by looking at the upward and downward movement of key economic inputs.

GDPNow has turned negative, with a projected annualized GDP shrinkage of about 2.5 percent for the first quarter of 2025, the first projected shrinkage the model has seen since the second quarter of 2022.

This corresponds to independent estimates of the recession’s likelihood. JP Morgan Research says there’s a 60 percent chance of a recession during the next year, Goldman Sachs puts it at 45 percent, and the International Monetary Fund pegs the likelihood at 37 percent.

The stock market has fallen.

The S&amp, P 500, a broad stock market gauge, dropped 18.9 percent between its February 19 peak and April 8 low before recovering in the following two weeks. Compared with the day after Trump’s November 2024 election win, the S&amp, P 500 is now down 4.5 percent. Since Trump’s inauguration in January, it has decreased by 8.7%, while its peak on February 19 has decreased by 10.1 percent.

After a stock market decline, there is a strong correlation between recession and recovery. A stock market tumble can cause consumers to hunker down and cut spending. If that occurs, businesses experience declines in sales, which causes them to reduce their workforces and stymie new investments. Consumers are thus even more hesitant to spend, perpetuating the pattern.

Since 1950, a National Bureau of Economic Research committee has declared 10 official US recessions. Seven of those were accompanied by Declines in Standard & Poor’s 500. Almost a half-century ago, during the double-dip recessions of 1980 and 1982, there was a time when there was no notable S&amp, P decline.

Of the seven recessions that accompanied stock market declines, the S&amp, P 500 declines ranged from 18 percent to 55 percent, with the 55 percent drop occurring during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009.

A new survey conducted each week by the American Association of Individual Investors reveals growing skepticism about the stock market’s ability to experience a quick rebound. In late November, 39% of survey respondents declared they were “bearish” about the stock market, which is the jargon for “pessimistic.” By late April, that share had risen to 56 percent.

Small businesses are already facing negative effects.

Beyond the numbers, we discovered several businesses where the company’s owners claimed Trump’s tariffs have already stifled growth.

Dennison, of the Original Pancake House, said in addition to Trump’s tariffs, he’s concerned that mass deportation efforts could produce a shortage of agricultural workers, further raising ingredient prices.

Owner of the Fresno, California Crazy Squirrel Game Store Jax Ward said she is experiencing both the “chaotic way it’s been handled,” which makes customers hesitant to spend money. Ward claimed that her peers in the game industry group, the Game Manufacturers Association, have heard similar reports.

A few publishers of tabletop games she sells have told Ward “they won’t be publishing this year, or they’re laying off employees, and that they’ve left manufactured products in China because it’s now far too expensive to import them”.

She claimed that everything from dice to games are produced overseas. It would be difficult for me to come up with a few products that are both US-made and made from natural resources.

For now, Ward said she is shifting some of her business to used games, including a large Lego section, and in-person events at her store. She also tries to pre-stock items before tariffs start to apply, but she said not every company can do so because it requires a stable cash flow and enough storage space.

Ward said she is aware of a few store owners who are considering shutting down their businesses. “Boardgame sales used to be considered recession-proof”, Ward said. We’ll check to see if they’re still there.