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April 1, 2024 Edition
Focus on Banking & Finance

Riding out the storm: Amid economic uncertainty, Maine banks keep calm and carry on

Renee Cordes

Maine banks, like ones across the country, are getting impatient for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

Today's Poll

Are you worried how the higher U.S. tariffs proposed by President-elect Trump could affect your business?
Poll Description

With the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president, it seems likely that the United States will impose major new tariffs on imported goods and materials.

A tariff is a tax, of course — though not truly a sales tax, as it's been called. For American businesses and consumers, however, the effect could be the same.

Under Trump's plan, businesses would have to pay a tariff of 10% to 20% on anything they import, and as much as 60% on imports from China. Typically, such extra costs get passed along to customers in the form of higher prices.

When other countries retaliate with tariffs of their own on U.S. exports, the impact on prices is compounded.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonpartisan think tank, issued an analysis in September of what all this could mean.

Among the findings: "Assuming other governments respond in kind, Trump’s 10 percentage point increase results in U.S. real GDP that is 0.9 percent lower than otherwise by 2026, and U.S. inflation rises 1.3 percentage points above baseline in 2025."

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