Tariff Tax Truth: The Hidden Cost You're Already Paying

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Despite the patriotic spin, tariffs aren’t squeezing foreign governments—they’re squeezing your wallet. From toolmakers to food giants, American companies are warning of billions in added costs, and those costs are getting passed directly to consumers. This episode breaks down the economic sleight of hand behind tariff revenue claims, exposes how corporate price hikes are baked into the system, and explains why tariffs are just taxes in disguise. Like it or not, you're footing the bill—and it's only going up.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tariffs are raising prices. There's no doubt about it. And
to me, favor don't scream at the screen, don't click off. Okay,
I want to hear it, la la la. Markowski's spewing
facts again. Yeah. Anyway, you had Lutnik on television this
past weekend talking about this amazing revenue that's coming in,

(00:36):
and you get people on social media, this is what
I voted for, really higher taxes. You voted for higher taxes.
I didn't vote for higher taxes. Lutnix seems to think
that his tariffs can pull in seven trillion dollars over
ten years. I'm going to ask this question to everyone,

(00:56):
where is that money coming from? Where's it coming from?
And stop saying foreign governments because it's not. It's not
coming from foreign governments. It's not coming from foreign companies. Okay,
it's not. It's coming from you. That's what it is.

(01:18):
It's tax Basically, you can take a look across the board,
every bit of economic data. If you actually take a look,
it's going to raise prices. And not only that, not
only is it raised pride. I've explained this before. People
say why I need to make it in America. Making

(01:38):
America is manufacturing here. Okay, fine, I think you bring
the manufacturing back here to the United States escape the tariffs.
But what any company is going to do is they're
going to see what their competitors are selling products for overseas,
and they're going to raise their prices. They may undercut
them a little bit, but they're still going to be

(02:00):
able to, you know, raise their prices and get a
higher profit based upon what the competition is forced to
charge because of the tariffs story CNBC. Companies behind some
of America's best known brands are warning that tariffs will
raise costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. Firms are

(02:23):
gearing up for the Long Way to Friday deadline, when
the White House says it will start imposing higher import
taxes on foreign countries. Tool Maker Stanley blackendeckers that expects
an eight hundred million dollars annualized hit from policy changes
tied to tariffs. ConAgra Brands higher tariffs expected to raise

(02:47):
its costs of goods sold by three percent. Ken a
lot of a lot of production here in the United States.
Whatnot Again? Across the board, input costs are going up.
General Motors talking about it, Whirlpool talking about it again.

(03:09):
Air conditioner maker Carrio Global set it now expects to
spend about two hundred million offset the impact of tariffs.
These prices brought Procter and Gamble one billion in higher
pre tax costs. If you don't think that all of
this is going to be priced into the products that
you buy, you're crazy. Again. You get a company saying, oh,

(03:30):
we're going to raise it by three percent. Yeah, you
got to raise it three percent this year, and then
maybe a little bit later on this year you raised
by another three percent, and you're just you're going to
factor these costs in. That's just how the world works.
That's how a tax works. Again, I keep repeating this
over and over and over again. I know, but most
people don't understand. It's the same way people don't understand
corporate taxes. The fact that corporate taxes are paid by

(03:53):
the consumer, not paid by the company. You're the one
that provides the money. You buy their products, you buy
their services, you utilize their services. That's that's where the
money comes from. It's a simple concept, so, without a doubt,
tariffs are raising prices. Watchdog on Wall Street dot com