CNN’s Berman: Predictions of Job Loses, Inflation Due to Tariffs, ‘that Doom Just Hasn’t Happened Yet’

BERMAN: “Again, since, you know, March and before, there were predictions that the tariffs and granted a lot of them have been pulled back, most of them have been pulled back, but all that tariff policy was going to lead perhaps to inflation, would lead to job losses, predictions of doom, that doom just hasn’t happened yet.”
FOROOHAR: “It hasn’t happened. And, you know, John, I’ve been doing a lot of reporting on this topic, and what I’m hearing is that for the last few years, really since Covid, but even before, companies have realized that their supply chains can be interrupted for lots of reasons, for — for a virus, for a geopolitical event, for a war, for a climate event, and so they’ve been using technology to really streamline things, they’ve been getting their — their systems in place, and there’s just a lot more efficiency in the system now. In some ways, I think this is a triumph of business and how business has been optimizing. Now, that said, when we think about who’s going to do well in this period, it’s going to be big businesses. I am hearing that there’s more pressure on small and mid-sized businesses that will be far less able to cope with whatever tariff inflationary impact we do see. That concerns me, because small and mid-sized businesses are what fuels a lot of communities around the country. If you see them going under because they can’t take even a little bit of tariff pressure, that could have a jobs impact. So again, optimistic right now, but it’s — you know, there are some issues on the horizon still.”
BERMAN: “All right. But a good jobs report — one more good jobs report.”
FOROOHAN: “Yeah.”
BERMAN: “We’ve really seen a long run, we’re talking years long run here of this —“
FOROOHAR: “Yeah.”
BERMAN: “— at this point. Rana Foroohar, great to see you. Thank you very much. Sara.”