Despite her insistence that her city, Cincinnati, is “insulated” from the national economy thanks to its diversity, Julie Heath, the director of the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center, said recently that she is worried about the city’s economy. Heath said some of the proposals that the incoming presidential administration has suggested might be quickly implemented in 2017 have her worried about Cincinnati’s future, as well as that of the nation as a whole. However, she added, “there are so many unknowns at the national level it’s really hard to say.”
Heath and other economists are concerned because president-elect Trump has proposed multiple times that the United States might levy tariffs on incoming products in order to try to protect national manufacturing and keep jobs in the United States. Also, Trump’s proposed infrastructure spending could lead to inflation and more national debt, they warned, along with labor shortages in the construction field.
While the economic outlook (according to Heath and her colleagues) is bleak, the facts of the matter are no one really knows what Trump will do yet. In all likelihood, a lot of the doom and gloom (politics aside) are due to the great difficulty that lies in making forecasts and predictions when you simply have no history to go on. This president is going to make everyone, supporters and otherwise, uncomfortable until it becomes a little clearer what exactly kind of actions he’ll take once in office. Once his plans begin to materialize, even those who dislike them, will have a firmer foothold for making predictions both good and bad and for moving forward.
In the interim, Heath said that Cincinnati at least should be okay. The city has a large export economy (13th in the nation) and about half of the nation’s exports flow through the Midwestern city. Combined with improving employment numbers, this foundation should, as Heath said, insulate the area from any sharp economic swings in the near future.
You can read more of Carole VanSickle Ellis’ coverage of this and other topics at Self-Directed Investor News.
About the Author
Carole VanSickle Ellis is the host of Real Estate Investing Today, a daily nine-minute investing podcast, and the editor of the Bryan Ellis Investing Letter. Contact her at editor@bryanellis.com or visit www.selfdirectedinvestor.org.
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