IMO the most important thing for a business is stability.
Some businesses can do incredibly well in a high-tariff environment. Some businesses require a low-tariff environment. Some businesses need a light touch with regulations. Some businesses need a lot of government regulation to make long-term investments pay off. Businesses can even thrive in times of war, in times of government censorship, in times of prohibition. Businesses can even find a way to adapt under a dictator who rewards loyalty and punishes traitors, as long as they know what the rules are.
What they can’t handle is uncertainty. If you don’t know what’s going to happen next year, or next month or even next week, you can’t make any plans. This absolute chaos is making doing business next to impossible.
The only constant under Trump is more chaos, so even when he backs down from a bad decision, it’s yet another change that people have to cope with.
Economic uncertainty is now literally off the charts, twice as bad as it was under COVID.
And now the US is in a no-win situation.
IMO the most important thing for a business is stability.
Some businesses can do incredibly well in a high-tariff environment. Some businesses require a low-tariff environment. Some businesses need a light touch with regulations. Some businesses need a lot of government regulation to make long-term investments pay off. Businesses can even thrive in times of war, in times of government censorship, in times of prohibition. Businesses can even find a way to adapt under a dictator who rewards loyalty and punishes traitors, as long as they know what the rules are.
What they can’t handle is uncertainty. If you don’t know what’s going to happen next year, or next month or even next week, you can’t make any plans. This absolute chaos is making doing business next to impossible.
The only constant under Trump is more chaos, so even when he backs down from a bad decision, it’s yet another change that people have to cope with.
Economic uncertainty is now literally off the charts, twice as bad as it was under COVID.