It hasn’t been a great few months for the U.S. economy. Jen Rubin joins economist Justin Wolfers to discuss the Fed’s recent Jackson Hole symposium on “Labor Markets in Transition,” where central bankers signaled independence by resisting Trump’s push for steep rate cuts. However, his erratic tariff policy is already unsettling markets, and as retailers scale back on absorbing higher costs, consumers will soon feel the squeeze. Meanwhile, the administration’s move to buy stock in private corporations (an extraordinary intervention outside of crisis conditions) raises more questions than answers.
Justin Wolfers is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Justin is also a contributing columnist for the New York Times and the host of the popular podcast Think Like an Economist.
