How Will The Trump Tariffs Affect Indiana Investments?

The optics are worrisome. Markets have been going down since Donald Trump has taken office over worries what a looming trade war will do to world markets. Yesterday’s “Liberation Day” provided no comfort to investors as the President has set across the board tariffs against countries for their unequal trade practices. What does this mean for the state of Indiana’s investment portfolio. State Treasurer Daniel Elliott joined Tony Katz to discuss.

Tony Katz:

How do the tariffs really impact the states? Because states do their own investing and then states want businesses investing in them. Daniel Elliott joins me right now. He is the state Treasurer for the state of Indiana. And First things first, I certainly hope you’re OK from the storms last night, you and yours and where it is that that you live. Let’s talk about our investments. The state of Indiana does a ton of investing. You, you, you’re buying bonds from other nations. You’re, you’re, you’re engaged in these things that provide a. Value for people with pensions and other things going on in the state tax. Do these tariffs affect Indiana investments?

Daniel Elliott:

So, I think we’ll see a lot of that coming. And I think that actually ties in really well with when you ask that question, how are these tariffs going to affect Indiana? You’re absolutely right, everything that you said. You know that, you know, we see post trades of looming trade war. The reality is the trade war got started a long time ago. If you look at what China has been doing to the United States, it’s I mean, you know, $500 billion in steel tariffs over the last five years… You look at all the averages for the last five years. But at one point it was almost 5 billion, you know, that’s in steel. So, then you start looking at what’s going on with Indiana agriculturally, when China is taking, soybeans and stockpiling and then and then dumping them on the market to bring the prices down. That’s happened. That’s been happening. So, I can totally understand where President Trump says, “look… this has got to stop, we got to do something.” We’ve been, we’ve been kind of everybody’s punching bag for a while, and now we’re saying, “Hey, hold up a minute… we’re going to fight back a little bit,” … But to your specific question, how are these tariffs going to affect Indiana, especially our investments, Indiana’s? I think it actually is going to help from an economic standpoint, it’s going to boost Indiana. We are a top producer of steel, and we are top manufacturing producer. So, for Indiana specifically, I think these tariffs are going to actually give us more jobs and help bring more revenue into the state of Indiana.

Tony Katz:

Talking to Daniel Elliott, the state treasurer for the state of Indiana. But we invest in other places, we buy bonds, We do these things. Do these tariffs affect those investments?

Daniel Elliott:

To that direct point, actually we’re going to be doing really well in the state. Our investments portfolio is extremely diverse. In fact, we built in a lot of risk mitigation into Indiana’s investment portfolio just for times like this because you know, we’ve had, you know, ups and downs in our economy. At the end of the day, we need to be able to serve Hoosiers typically civically, while a lot of other entities as people who are investing are chasing yields. We’re always looking at safety and liquidity for yield… And with that, we just made 500 million last year in revenue. In the last fiscal year and right now we’re still set to make 500 million (this year).

Listen to the discussion in full here: