Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, VITAL BRIEFING—Fed Chairman Powell says inflation ‘risks tilted to upside,’ points to tariffs, (Dec 12, 2025)
Jay Foreman, the CEO of a U.S. based toy seller, observed that a Chinese made Tonka Truck would cost about $40 this holiday season, up around 33 percent from last year’s holidays.
In this installment of Tariffs Insights, Thomas Thompson delves into the recent move by the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee’s to lower its interest rate target by a quarter-point despite heightened concerns over increases in inflation which Fed Chairman Jerome Powell attributed to the Trump administration’s tariff policies. The piece also points to how tariffs have resulted in significantly higher toy prices for U.S, consumers, as well as a myriad of challenges for the toy industry, both domestically and overseas.
Thompson also examines China’s monumental trade surplus, which now exceeds $1 trillion, and China’s apparent reluctance to reengage with U.S. soybean markets despite supposed commitments it made to purchase 12 million metric of the commodity this year. Those purported promises were made after President Donald Trump met with China’s President Xi Jinping in October. Still, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remains optimistic about the agricultural deals struck with China, noting that the time horizon for the Chinese to consummate the purchases extends into February of 2026.
To read the article, click Fed Chairman Powell says inflation “risks tilted to upside,” points to tariffs.
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