"Since taking office, Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on countries, including key trading partners, leading to predictions of inflation skyrocketing, manufacturing screeching to a halt and unemployment soaring. None of those scenarios came true. Inflation, while above the Federal Reserve's target, was a modest 2.7 percent in December. The unemployment rate was relatively low, at 4.4 percent, last month."
"Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025, the fastest in two years. The shock and awe we anticipated just didn't materialise, Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera. Yaros said the limited fallout could be attributed to the relative lack of retaliation by other countries and the stock market rally that quickly followed Trump's dialling back of the steepest tariffs announced on liberation day."
"Since Trump's April 2 announcement, the stock market, which is heavily weighted towards the magnificent seven tech companies, has risen nearly 30 percent, boosting Americans' paper wealth and encouraging households to loosen their purse strings. Gains in net wealth have driven almost one-third of the rise in consumer spending since the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxford Economics said in a research briefing in October."
Economic growth in the United States remained strong while wealth and income inequality widened. Tariffs imposed on trading partners raised fears of high inflation, manufacturing collapse and soaring unemployment, but those scenarios did not materialize. Inflation was modest at 2.7 percent in December, unemployment stood at 4.4 percent, and GDP grew 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025. A sharp stock market rally concentrated in major tech firms increased household paper wealth and supported consumer spending, while gains remained uneven with the top 10 percent accounting for roughly half of all spending.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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