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Joyce Li's avatar

Business confidence is heavily hit and planning becomes very difficult when CFOs doesn't know where tariffs and economic conditions will end up at a year from now. I've seen this movie before in other countries when investment spending evaporated on policy uncertainties. I worry the damage to balance sheets when interest rate comes down slower than the speed at which margin and free cash flow declines. Hope I am wrong!

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Marianne O, CFA's avatar

Indeed. Unfortunately, our President shows a great example of how the US cannot be trusted as partners. As Paul Krugman says, it is the uncertainty of policy that is killing confidence and business planning -- the hard data has already turned (down), and if the tariffs situation is not settled more quickly, the damages cannot be reversed!

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