The economic news is not what I would call good….between tariffs and DOGE screwing with the government things are , according to lead economists, pointing to a serious recession looming….

A former Obama administration economic adviser said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve’s forecast of increased unemployment, accelerating inflation, and slower growth driven by President Donald Trump’s economic policies could portend a return of the “stagflation” that plagued the nation in the 1970s.

The Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets U.S. monetary policy, downgraded its economic outlook for 2025 from an initial projection of 2.1% growth to 1.7%. FOMC also revised its inflation forecast upward from 2.5% to 2.8%.

While FOMC said that “recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the committee noted that “uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased.”

Fears of an economic slowdown or even a recession have increased dramatically since Trump took office and imposed tariffs on some of the nation’s biggest trade partners while moving to gut critical social programs in order to fund a $4.5 trillion tax cut that will overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans.

“Inflation has started to move up now. We think partly in response to tariffs and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a Wednesday news conference, at which he said interest rates will remain unchanged. “The survey data [of] both household and businesses show significant large rising uncertainty and significant concerns about downside risks.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-stagflation

But as far as the news I see on the tube do not take this outlook….why is that?

Could any bad news be withheld from the public?

As Politicoreported Friday, experts serving on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Technical Advisory Committee were informed this week that they were no longer needed, leaving the BLS without a panel that has long advised the Labor Department on how economic changes can impact data collection.

A page for the committee was removed from the Labor Department’s website, along with one that had information about the Data Users Advisory Committee, which has advised on how businesses and policymakers can use the agency’s economic reports.

“It would be a bad sign for a software company to cancel all beta testing if you expect to keep making better software,” Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Roosevelt Institute who served on the data users committee, told Politico. “This feels like the same sort of thing.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/how-will-trumps-tariffs-affect-the-economy

This info is info that every American family needs to have access to so they can determine their family economic health.

No info like this should ever be kept from the public.

Then came more bad news for the economy….Donny and the magic Sharpie will add a new 25% tariff on autos…..

President Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported cars Wednesday, a move he said would “lead to tremendous growth in the automotive industry.” The tariff, to be implemented April 2, will apply to finished cars and trucks imported to the US, including American brands assembled in different countries, the New York Times reports. In remarks at the Oval Office, Trump seemed to rule out exemptions for vehicles from Canada and Mexico, reports the Wall Street Journal. “What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars not made in the US,” he said. Asked if the tariff could be lifted, Trump said it is “100%” permanent.

Trump said car prices would go down, though since almost half the vehicles sold in the US are imported, analysts expect prices to rise significantly. The current tariff on auto imports is 2.5%. After Trump’s announcement, shares in top US automakers dropped sharply in after-hours trading, NBC News reports. European and Japanese automakers will be hit hard by the tariff, and countermeasures are expected, the Times reports. The Detroit News predicts that the “entire industry will likely face severe consequences, from higher vehicle prices to supply chain breakdowns,” if high tariffs are in place for long.

Tesla, which makes all of its vehicles sold in the US in California and Texas, will be less affected than other major US automakers, but Trump said Elon Musk did not influence tariff policy and has “never asked me for a favor in business whatsoever.” Tesla would be hit a lot harder if the tariff was applied to components as well as finished vehicles, the Times notes. If the tariff is fully passed on to consumers, the average auto price could rise $12,500, according to the AP. Trump said Wednesday that he could give car buyers a break by allowing them to deduct interest paid on auto loans from their federal income tax—as long as the vehicles were made in America.

Wall Street got pulled in opposite directions Thursday as President Trump’s latest tariff escalation created winners and losers among auto stocks, while better-than-expected data on the economy helped support the market.

• The S&P 500 slipped 18.89 points, or 0.3%, to 5,693.31 after drifting between small gains and losses through the day.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.09 points, or 0.4%, to 42,299.70.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 94.98 points, or 0.5% to 17,804.03.

Even General Motors sank 7.4% for one of the market’s sharper losses after Trump announced 25% tariffs on imported cars. Ford Motor dropped 3.9%.

US automakers selling vehicles in the country can feel the pain of tariffs because their supply chains are spread throughout North America, the AP reports. Trump says he wants more manufacturing to take place within the US. “There are still a lot of unknowns, but if this remains in place, there will clearly be some pain for the companies to digest,” according to UBS analyst Joseph Spak. Among the uncertainties are how the government will determine how to apply tariffs to parts that are compliant with the free-trade agreement that it has with Mexico and Canada but are not made entirely within the US. Tracking parts could be difficult, according to Spak.

Watch your finances

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”