SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump's new tariffs are causing confusion for consumers. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted last night there'll be an exemption to imported electronics. That's just the latest example of the chaos that the president's tariff policies are causing U.S. companies and business. The Dow was down almost 5% since the president unveiled some import duties on April 2, a day he marked as "Liberation Day." That sent consumers and business owners rushing to stock up on tariff products before prices shot up, with corporate America's most powerful CEOs embracing a favorite buzzword to talk about the future - uncertainty. NPR business correspondent Maria Aspan joins us. Maria, thanks so much for being with us.
MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: Good morning.
SIMON: Please catch us up.
ASPAN: Well, it was, as you noted, a pretty turbulent week, as everyone tried to figure out what's going to happen with President Trump's tariffs. By Wednesday, the stock and bond markets were freaking out, to use the technical term. And then Trump abruptly backed down on some of his steepest tariffs, announcing a 90-day pause. But he did continue escalating a trade war with China. And even with the pause on some tariffs, investors and businesses soon realized that they still have to face new taxes of 10% on almost everything they import. So as all of this was happening, CEOs of the country's biggest companies had to go out and talk about all of it in public on their previously scheduled earnings calls with analysts. Here's one example of how that went from Wells Fargo's CEO, Charlie Scharf, yesterday.
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CHARLIE SCHARF: It is a volatile time. It is a time of unknowns. Again, we're trying to be as clear as we can about what we think today.
ASPAN: So to quote the late Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, businesses are facing a lot of unknown unknowns.
SIMON: As is everyone right now. How does this ripple through the business world?
ASPAN: Well, first of all, we'll probably just buy less stuff, and that has a direct impact on consumer-facing businesses. Take airplane tickets, for example. Scott, if you or I get worried about a recession, we might decide not to buy tickets or to not take that summer vacation. And, in fact, that seems to be what's happening. Delta Airlines, for example - it had a great start to 2025. In January, it told investors that this would be its best financial year ever. But by Wednesday, Delta canceled that forecast, and this is what CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.
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ED BASTIAN: We're in uncharted, unprecedented uncertainty when you look at what's happening - the pivot so quickly to this self-inflicted situation.
ASPAN: Now, Bastian said some of that uncertainty is affecting consumers, but Delta also sells a lot of tickets to business travelers. And when businesses don't know what to expect, they also tend to pull back on spending.
SIMON: And those business spending decisions affect us all, don't they?
ASPAN: Yeah, in a lot of ways. I mean, some are obvious. When businesses don't want to spend money, they don't hire. They don't open new offices. Maybe they have layoffs. And, of course, that's a big deal. But there are also these more hidden decisions that still trickle down to consumers. For example, if big companies and private investors get worried about the future, they're going to take fewer risks. They'll cut back on investing with startups or lending to small businesses. And if those startups and small businesses can't get money, they can't grow and produce new products and services we all might use. So these are the sorts of business decisions that can affect consumers and the entire U.S. economy months or years down the line, which means that all of this vague uncertainty can lead to a lot of potential long-term consequences.
SIMON: NPR's Maria Aspan. Thanks so much for being with us.
ASPAN: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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