ECONOMY/INFRASTRUCTURE/LABOR/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump burnished his tough-on-trade image last week by declaring he would impose tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports. But the move could undermine another part of his ‘America First’ economic agenda: Rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.
Tariffs on imported aluminum and steel could drive up the cost of infrastructure investments, accentuating price pressures already brought on by a growing global economy…
The Labor Department’s producer-price index for goods used in construction industries—which include asphalt, concrete, diesel fuel and other materials—was up 4.9% year-to-year in January. In November, prices were up 5.6% on an annual basis, the steepest increase in seven years. A separate producer-price index for steel-mill products was up 7.8% in 2017, according to the Labor Department.
Those price increases outpace overall economic growth—2.5% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier—and consumer price inflation, which stood at 2.1% in January over the previous year… The Trump administration has proposed spending $200 billion to pay for more than $1 trillion over a decade in infrastructure projects using matching funds from state and local governments or the private sector.”
-David Harrison, “Trump’s Proposed Tariffs Risk Hurting Infrastructure Plan,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 4, 2018 02:34pm