The Landlord Lens - Trump Tariffs Update: Will Prices Explode Again?

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

Trump is pushing new tariffs—and Americans are bracing for impact. Will this lead to another surge in prices at the store? Or is it a smart move to bring manufacturing back home? In this video, we break down what the new tariffs mean for inflation, your wallet, and the economy heading into 2025.

It's hard not to be alarmed when you see 12% dip from the February peak. Tariffs on China are at 125% and I think it's fair to say that we are probably in the midst of a trade war with China. Hey everybody, I just wanted to give you a quick tariff update. Today I'm here with Seamus. How's it going, Seamus? Alex's doing great. So we've had a pretty tumultuous week, you know, starting with Liberation Day where Trump announced 10% tariffs on all countries that, had tariffs on us. Following that, we had a really volatile market. Some people were, you might say, terrified. What do you make of all this? And where are we at now with these tariffs? Yeah, it's been a wild

kind of last two weeks, right? Ups and downs. Really good for headlines. What has been really interesting to see since the pause that occurred on April 10th, right? How markets have kind of calmed down and what the rhetoric from the administration has been. A lot of that has been about all. the countries that are coming for negotiation to talk through the tariffs. I think the Japanese negotiations are officially kicking off off this week. That's brought, I think, a lot of hope to individuals that are looking for a future that is both less volatile, but also a lot more predictable and have lower tariffs in a lot of cases. So the market's super volatile. You know, obviously a lot of us are looking at this and being fearful, but who really is impacted?

think. That's a great question. And the administration, I think, has made it very clear that they care more about Main Street than they do about Wall Street. And so I'm not surprised that the volatility is with, is acceptable for them. 62% of citizens in the United States own stocks, right, whether that's in a 401K, that's whether it's in a Robin Hood account, right? But that's 38% of people that have very limited exposure to the stock market and the fluctuate. of those changes. There's a large portion of the United States. And even those, the 62% that own public equities, most of them are long-term investors. And so there's short-term volatility other than getting your heart rate going. It doesn't actually impact their day-to-day. And there's no actions they should really be taking. That's good to hear. You know, another big fear a lot of people have are about the price hikes, inflationary drawbacks from some of the tariffs. You know, a lot of economists say this is going to really stifle the economy, you know, and every,

Everything from lumber, from Canada to fuel gas prices going up. What do you think about that? Do you think that prices are going to be going up? Or is this just more fodder for fear from the headlines? All the headlines look at things that will happen and the future, right? You and I were scouring to try to find actual research on what's changed since April 2nd. The only thing I was able to really come up with is it looks like apparel pricing, especially a lot of their goods, have gone up 8%.

So if you're going to get that new leather jacket, right, that might hit the bottom. pocketbook a little bit harder. In general, though, most other prices have not changed that greatly or much at all as a result of Liberation Day, right, on April 2nd. We know things like eggs, right, are extremely high right now. And price, that's been the case for the last six months. That's not new. I think it would be kind of a false conclusion to try to draw any connection to tariffs on that or even current policy on that. We took it like a gasoline, right? And you can see gasoline is about 10% per gallon cheaper than it was for the average of 2024. So there's definitely some improvement there. In terms of what will happen in the future, it's super hard to say knowing that we're in this negotiation period. The big concern is that there'll be inflationary, right, with all of the goods coming into the United States. But I think what we're, we don't have the full picture of today is how that may be balanced out. There's a couple ways that can be balanced out. is that as tariffs on places like China remain extremely high

and increase the price of those goods, other countries like a Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, three countries have been in the headlines in terms of starting the negotiating process. Those tariffs might come down and we may actually be sourcing from those countries, right? They may take the place of those Chinese goods without changing the price to the consumer.

The other piece is companies, and like the Walmart CEO came out, companies have the option to push, back on the suppliers, right, and make the suppliers eat those costs of tariffs, they can decide to eat those costs of tariffs or they can pass the cost of tariffs onto the consumer, right? And so the CEO of Walmart came out and said their, their mission is to push those prices back onto the suppliers, right? Not push them onto the consumers. And so some large companies like a Walmart, right, the largest retailer in the world, will have that

option to actually not pass that price onto the consumer. So I think there's still a lot of those pieces that are yet to be figured out. And going just on the rhetoric of the administration, I think creates a lot of fear. Because at the end of the day, they are positioning for negotiation, right? And so they can't speak to us American citizens differently than they speak to the whole world, right? And so there's one message they're putting out there. And it's very much the, I'd say the tough guy message to, let people know that we're not joking around. Yeah, that's a really interesting point. And I think

something that I've noticed, you know, obviously there's been a lot of volatility with even Trump's, you know, he's been pausing the tariffs, implementing the tariffs. With all these changes, negotiation seems to be the number one focus. How do you think these negotiations are going to be helpful in the long term for the American consumer and homeowner? Yeah, so the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessonet has been really clear that as they're looking at the negotiations, they're looking at trade and balances as well as maybe manipulation in the foreign markets that countries are doing or areas that those countries are actually subsidizing production within their own country so that there's not basically a free market, right? For example, if China is subsidizing

car manufacturing in China and the U.S. is not subsidizing car manufacturing in the United States, the reason that companies can produce such cheap automobiles in China is because they're getting their profit from the government, not from the consumer, right? So it's not an open free market like we practice here. And so Scott, Treasury Secretary Scott Bassinet has been really clear that as they're negotiating, it's not just about tariffs. It's also about some of the subsidy practices and manipulation that happens in country. The other piece, though, that I will say that as Secretary Bassinet has done the rounds. He's really pressing on, too, is tariffs are part of a three-legged stool. I think it's the term he's used where you have tariffs to raise revenue and correct trade and balances within the United States. You have tax breaks, which are really exciting things are happening with. And then the third is you have deregulation. The fastest thing you can implement is the tariffs. The next thing is the tax breaks. And the highlight of that, at least as I look at it, are the no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no taxes on Social Security. as well as the ability to write off interest that you pay on automobile loans if that car is manufactured in the United States, right?

Which is something that actually existed in the 80s and is a great incentive to not just buy U.S. made, but also help individuals out that maybe have made that purchase, right, years ago and are still paying on that loan. That's all awesome to hear. I love to hear tax cuts. I love to hear revenue raising. I will say at this point, I think the last time I heard that tariffs on China are at 125%, which is pretty huge. And I think it's fair to say that we are probably in the midst of a trade war with China. What are the consequences of that tariff on China?

There's no doubt there's going to be a scurry to realign suppliers, right, from supply changes outside of China. Like I said earlier, I think it's actually going to really benefit other countries in the region that create. similar products outside of China that aren't exposed to such high tariffs. And it's probably the reason that some of the countries that are hitting the headlines for negotiations are Chinese neighbors, right? The neighboring countries over there that they want to be the first to negotiate great tariffs with the United States so that some of those goods can start coming through their country instead.

It'll be really interesting to see, though, what happens with a large U.S. companies that rely on China for manufacturing like an Alps. Apple, right? There's the headlines of Apple filling up cargo planes with iPhones, right, to send over before all the tariffs take place. Realistically, what we're hearing from the administration is they don't want us to be at this tariff level with China for a long term, right? It's very much a game of chicken right now, it seems. I believe that out of China, the quote was that these tariffs are a joke. Secretary Bess Sent has said he's got a different sense of humor. He doesn't find them a joke at all. And he hopes we're able to use those to negotiate something so that they're

a femoral and not something that are long-lasting because neither country wants that situation. So it sounds like it's too early to tell what will be the consequences of this tariff. But as of right now, there's no evidence of any hard price hikes from the tariffs or anything affecting the consumer other than the volatility in the market. which has been up and down for the last two weeks. I think that's a great summary. Right now we're not yet seeing the impact to our wallets and how big of an impact that's going to be,

time we'll tell. What is really interesting for those people, though, that think a shakeup is necessary in the U.S. economy is the experiment's happening, right? There's a lot of talk through the election cycle and everything, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. They've been implemented. One way I've been looking at this situation

and staying away from being overly anxious is really with just a mindset of curiosity. What is it that they're seeing? What is it that is actually happening? And I've tried to educate myself a lot over this last three to four months to just understand macro trade, not something that I'd spent a lot of energy on previously. And it's really interesting to see this experiment, I'll say, in our lifetime and be able to point to this as something that was tried to shake things up. Maybe that's too casual a way to think about it. But a lot of this is out of my control. It's out of your control. It's out of all your control. And so learning from it and staying curious has been the best approach for me.

Well, it certainly has been interesting to watch play out. I haven't seen anything like this in my lifetime, I have to say. So yeah, I'm going to hope for the best, Seamus. I really appreciate you bringing your expertise to this and giving us a good update on the tariffs. If you want to like and subscribe or if you have your own opinions on how the tariffs are affecting us or what you think might happen, leave us a comment below. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.