By NYT News Service/Syndicate Stories
Americans are spending less at McDonald’s. Fewer container ships are expected at the Port of Los Angeles. Procter & Gamble is raising prices. Mattel is shifting production out of China.
Evidence for the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s trade wars is everywhere — except, for the most part, in economic data itself. Consumer spending hasn’t fallen. Layoffs haven’t risen. Businesses haven’t stopped investing in equipment or buying supplies.
Economists say it is a matter of time before the impact of tariffs and the uncertainty that Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to trade policy has created begin to show up in the hard data. But until then, they are left sifting through crumbs of evidence that wouldn’t get a second glance in more normal times: customs revenue, hotel bookings in Las Vegas, freight shipments by truck and rail.
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