CEOs and Normal Humans Are Starting to Agree: On Trump and the Economy, They've Made a Huge Mistake - Slate

[justaprogressive]

Because Wall Street investors, for all the affectionate grief we like to give them, are smart enough to realize in advance that this is what is likely to happen, the market has spent the last two months trimming a fair amount off the value of U.S. stocks in anticipation. (The price you pay for a company’s stock is, in one sense, the amount you think it is worth to have a claim on a share of its future growth. Less future growth = less valuable stock.)

Further slowdowns are also being driven by uncertainty. The aforementioned Big Box corporation, in recent months, has probably put a pause on any plans it might have had to open more stores, because it’s not sure how much money it will be making going forward. It might be considering an investment in a U.S.-based flatscreen manufacturer, but it doesn’t know whether that’s the right long-term play either, given that Trump often changes his mind about specific tariffs at the last minute. The point is: Big Box Inc. is cutting back on spending. And if every company does this, the economy slows down, and people lose their jobs. As Goldman Sachs noted on Monday, the U.S. is also expected to see drops in tourism and export revenue as other countries, annoyed by Trump’s economic and immigration policies, cut back on visits and purchases.

snip

On the Big Business end of things, hardly a week goes by without a CEO or finance tycoon who anticipated explosive growth under Trump appearing in a news story saying something to the effect of “What the hell, man?” In February, Citadel hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin literally called Trump’s tariff approach a “huge mistake.” On March 6, Axios rounded up tariff complaints from the leaders of the Big Three American automakers. On March 14, NPR interviewed a business-school dean who’d just held a conference attended by numerous CEOs; he told the radio outlet that they were “very discouraged,” while a Wall Street Journal write-up of the same dean’s comments said he described “universal revulsion against the Trump economic policies.” On March 25, Business Insider quoted an anonymous Silicon Valley executive who’d been looking forward to “a more business-friendly presidency” but has now concluded that “the people surrounding Trump are all scamsters.” On Monday, Larry Fink of the investment giant BlackRock wrote in his annual letter to investors that nearly every client and peer he speaks to is “more anxious about the economy than any time in recent memory.” (To be fair, Fink is a “lifelong Democrat,” but that’s probably not true of all the people he’s speaking to.) And on Tuesday an industry group released a survey that shows manufacturing activity slowing—and quotes a number of respondents attributing the contraction to tariffs.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/trump-news-tariffs-economy-polling.html

[Irish_Dem]

1. Drug addicts mad their seller is selling bad drugs.

[Hornedfrog2000]

2. Ive lowered my 401k contributions

I have lowered my contributions because im guessing their goal is to destroy the dollar. Why invest when im not sure the dollar will be worth anything in the next 3 years? I would rather have the liquid cash, or some other form of assets than 401k which could be stolen, devalued, etc.

[tanyev]

3. Did all these CEOs and financial tycoons get mind wiped after Trump's first term?

Because I remember three years of chaos and uncertainty even before Covid hit.

[harumph]

4. This article illustrates the wisdom of the trust fund babies.

Every day must be a fucking revelation for these "geniuses." Man babies with a shit ton of $.