Moody’s economist fears 'worst-case scenario' as Trump tariff threatens 'millions of jobs lost'

01 April

President Donald Trump is describing this Wednesday, April 2 as "Liberation Day," equating steep new tariffs scheduled to go into effect that day with "liberation." But April 2 is a day that countless critics of Trump's tariffs, both liberal and conservative, dread — as they fear that new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and countries in the European Union (EU) will cause prices to soar and possibly lead to a recession in the United States.

Meanwhile, longtime U.S. trading partners are responding with retaliatory tariffs on American goods.

During a Tuesday morning, April 1 broadcast, CNN addressed the severe effects of a possible 20 percent tariff on most U.S. imports — highlighting a warning by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. According to Zandi, such a tariff would be especially harmful.

CNN's Matt Egan reported, "I just talked to Mark Zandi over at Moody's, and he told me that would be a worst-case scenario. If you have 20 percent tariffs on most U.S. imports and other countries retaliate, he said, that's the kind of thing that you could get a serious recession out of. You could have millions of jobs lost. And he also said that's why he doesn't think that's actually going to happen, because the economic damage would be so severe. And Zandi pointed out that, look, the president has a history of making threats and then walking them back."

During the segment, CNN's Kate Bolduan noted all the unease and anxiety plaguing the stock market as "Liberation Day" draws closer.

"Breaking moments ago: the opening bell on Wall Street," Egan reported. "Stocks starting the day, as you see, starting down…. Investors are waiting, have been waiting, for a day that they have been preparing for six weeks now, Liberation Day, in the six weeks since President Trump set this arbitrary deadline to impose sweeping global tariffs. It is still not clear, in these six weeks, what's coming and which countries will be impacted — hence, the uncertainty that is impacting the markets."

Wall Street, according to Egan, "is very much on edge and very much in the dark about what's going to happen next in this trade war."

"So you see markets opening, I would say, modestly lower," Egan observed. "All things considered, these losses could be even steeper."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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