Bill Ackman: “We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter”
The billionaire investor, who warned on Saturday of a real risk of a recession in the US due to the tariffs, called in a post on X for them to be frozen for 90 days.
Bill Ackman, head of the Pershing Square hedge fund, continues to call for a freeze on tariffs. After warning on Saturday that there is a real risk the U.S. economy could enter a recession, the billionaire published an extensive post on the social media platform X, in which he urged Donald Trump to call "a 90-day time out." During this period, he claims, he could negotiate and resolve unfair tariff agreements and encourage trillions of dollars in new investment in the U.S.
"If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.
"What CEO and what board of directors will be comfortable making large, long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic nuclear war?"
On April 9, the retaliatory tariffs imposed by Trump on 57 countries, including Israel, are scheduled to take effect. On Saturday, the base tariffs of 10% already came into force. According to Ackman, Trump has an opportunity today (Monday) to declare a "time out" to fix the unfair global tariff system.
"When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop spending money, and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers.
"And it is not just the big companies that will suffer. Small and medium size businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain. Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to their customers. And that’s true even if they have no debt, and, unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system.
"Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative. This is not what we voted for.
"The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system.
"Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.
"May cooler heads prevail."
