Stephen Miran: "I think that a lot of folks have got the effects of tariffs wrong"

I think that a lot of folks have got the effects of tariffs wrong...  The number one point is a general point about economics, which is that when you think about any economic policy, a tariff, a tax, anything else, the economists believe that the party that bears the burden or the benefit of that policy is the party that's more inflexible, because if you're flexible, you can change your behavior to avoid the costs...  

U.S. consumers are flexible.  We have options.  We can produce stuff at home, we have a variety of countries we can import stuff, we can substitute into home production, whereas countries that sell to the United States are inflexible.  They've only got the United States to sell to.  There's no alternative.  So they're the ones who will bear the burden of these tariffs, which means that there's going to be very limited pass through into downside economic risk or into higher prices.

~ Stephen Miran, "Trump's Economic Adviser Rejects Short-Term Pain From Tariffs," Bloomberg Podcasts, 0:30 mark, March 24, 2025