What Trump and Harris’ economic proposals mean for inflation, jobs and the deficit
CNN
In poll after poll, Americans have indicated the economy is their top concern as they prepare to cast votes this election.
In poll after poll, Americans have indicated the economy is their top concern as they prepare to cast votes this election. Dealing with high inflation for years will do that to you. Although inflation has cooled significantly since it peaked at a 40-year high in 2022, Americans are paying around 20% more for goods and services now compared to before the pandemic, according to Consumer Price Index data. On the flip side, the job market, which had been the greatest source of strength in the US economy after the pandemic, has been flashing warning signs lately. The unemployment rate is hovering near three-year highs, and employers are cutting back on hiring, with the number of job openings across the economy recently falling to the lowest level since January 2021, according to the Labor Department. In response to the anxieties Americans have about the economy, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have put vastly different policy proposals on the table, which they’re set to highlight during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Their contrasting approaches could have far-reaching effects on the economy – and for you. Here’s a look at what could happen to inflation, jobs and the deficit if Trump or Harris win in November. Trump’s tariff policy would controversially charge dramatically higher import taxes on practically everything that comes into the country’s ports from overseas. That could raise revenue for the government — but it could also cause Americans to pay higher prices for goods and services. Goldman Sachs economists estimated that every one percentage point increase in the effective tariff rate could raise core inflation as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index by a tenth of a percentage point. And Trump is talking about 10% to 20% tariffs on most things except Chinese goods — which would get a 60% tariff.
The DeepSeek drama may have been briefly eclipsed by, you know, everything in Washington (which, if you can believe it, got even crazier Wednesday). But rest assured that over in Silicon Valley, there has been nonstop, Olympic-level pearl-clutching over this Chinese upstart that managed to singlehandedly wipe out hundreds of billions of dollars in market cap in just a few hours and put America’s mighty tech titans on their heels.
At her first White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made an unusual claim about inflation that has stung American shoppers for years: Leavitt said egg prices have continued to surge because “the Biden administration and the department of agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage.”