NEW YORK — The global economy was already showing signs of a slowdown when President Donald Trump reminded the world of his love of tariffs and sent a chill through financial markets. Stocks sank across the world, in part over fear that an escalation in tariffs would choke off economic growth and possibly send a global slowdown into a recession. “ALL subjects discussed!”Still, Trump’s rattling of the global economy came at a precarious moment, with the economic outlook for 2019 dimming and concerns about a potential recession — if not next year then soon thereafter — rising. “President Trump regards himself as a trade reformer,” Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters Monday. The problem for the global economy is that tariffs tend to inflate prices, depress trade and reduce the incomes of everyday workers.

Source: National Post December 05, 2018 19:26 UTC