On Bloomberg Radio’s Balance of Power today, Groundwork Collaborative’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens weighed in on the latest CPI numbers and the president’s new tariffs on China and their impact on the U.S. economy:
On the Biden Administration’s tariffs:
“The story isn’t just about trade deficits here. The story is about trade-offs, if you will. What are the things that we’re trying to build to build a strong economy? One of the things we want is good jobs in America. If we make all of our EVs in China, we don’t have a vibrant auto manufacturing industry in America…
“We’re looking for a green transition, but we’re looking for a resilient green transition. One that isn’t going to be at the whims of shifts in the Chinese economy but that is durable in the United States economy too.“When you look at the big picture, when you look at the suite of interests here at the American worker, what we want for American industrial policy, and what our foreign policy concerns are as well, it really points to the types of decisions that the Biden administration is rolling out based on really thorough reviews by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.”
On the April CPI report and interest rates:
“Seeing core CPI come in at its lowest level since April of 2021…that’s just really great to see. We’ll see how many more good prints the Federal Reserve chair needs to see before he moves to rate cuts, but it’s hard to ask for much better than what we saw this morning.”
“If you’re worried about housing costs in the United States, a high interest rate environment is certainly not going to get you in the right direction. That’s not going to get Americans any relief in the housing market.”
“You do not want to be behind the eight ball on rate cuts. We’ve got a strong job market right now. We’ve got wages beating prices. And while the trend line hasn’t been as steadily downward as we’d like, overall inflation has really been coming down off its peak for over a year and a half now.”
Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to arrange an interview with Lindsay Owens.