HUDSON | Trump’s tariffs fueling inflation | Opinion

It seems Americans can no longer conduct reasoned public debate of economic issues. Recent price inflation is a case in point. Yes, President Biden’s approval ratings have slipped while consumer staples have grown more expensive. This correlation, as any statistics textbook will tell you, does not imply causation. The United States is hardly alone in facing inflationary pressure. October’s 6%, year-over-year increase, pales by comparison with Turkey’s 20%. Inflation may be contributing to Biden’s slide in opinion polls, but there are plenty of other factors at work.

The recently departed resident in the White House warned voters Joe Biden’s election would plunge the American economy into a depression that would make the 1930s look like a picnic. Instead, the stock market has climbed to record highs, we’ve created more new jobs in the past nine months than the former administration generated in four years. So, the sky is not falling. And there are several explanations for rising prices, which reflect varying degrees of plausible causation. COVID disruptions have clearly triggered the supply chain gridlock that is generating artificial shortages. Several OPEC members have chosen for entirely selfish reasons to choke off oil production as a strategy for recovering from nearly a decade of depressed energy markets. No reason to let a planetary crisis go to waste.

Closer to Main Street, many small family businesses are also pushing their profit margins up in order to amortize losses and loans incurred during the pandemic. There are also structural costs placed on markets we shouldn’t overlook. The Trump administration binged on tariff hikes across the entire economy, using executive orders premised on the dubious proposition that American national security was at risk. These tariffs amount to a retail tax on imports, in the case of Chinese goods it was set at 19%. The Chinese slapped a retaliatory 21% tariff on American imports. Only recently have these costs started to find their way to store shelves. Despite this, we are buying more goods than ever from China ($370 billion last year), while China is struggling to meet…