Visualizing the Global Economy in 6 Infographics

These numbers can change drastically with the reigniting of the Trade War by President Trump

Mr. 10% was at it again — President Trump got to his ‘Twitter-best’ announcing that the U.S would introduce a 10% tariff on $300B of not-yet-tariffed Chinese imports from Sept. 1 throwing the financial markets in a tailspin. Apart from the long term ramifications, this has greatly escalated a trade war which was seeing a period of a lull with the continuing talks between the two economic powers.

Knee jerk reaction included an 8% dive in the Oil prices, Treasury yields falling below 2%, China’s currency Yuan dropping to 2019 low & Dow Jones closing down 280 points.

The timing of the tweet was interesting too, as it came right after one day of the FOMC rate hike which was less than dovish and came more as a precautionary measure against trade risks than the start of another easying cycle. Perhaps by doing this Trump has raised the stake for the Feds to continue the rate-cutting cycle.

The rate move by the Feds ired President Trump as he had been expecting to use Central Bank’s monetary policy to fight the trade war against China. He is also running out of patience with the Chinese, blaming them for the breakdown of the earlier deal…