On The Money: Trump announces new China tariffs | Wall Street salaries hit highest level since 2008 | GOP bets the House on the economy

by Sylvan Lane - 09/17/18 6:46 PM ET

Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-staging.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-staging.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com and nelis@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis.

THE BIG DEAL—Trump announces new tariffs on China: President Trump on Monday unveiled his plan to impose another round of new, steep tariffs on Chinese imports, further escalating economic tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump has been promising to slap a 10 percent tariff — less than the 25 percent that was initially floated — on $200 billion in Chinese products on top of the tariffs on $50 billion of goods from China that he imposed earlier this summer.

“It will be a lot of money coming into the coffers of the United States of America,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “A lot of money coming in,” Trump said.

Trade experts argue that tariffs amount to very little in revenue and the costs of the tariffs will be passed along to U.S. consumers.

Stocks tumbled on Monday afternoon as word of the impending announcement spread. The Hill’s Jordan Fabian and Vicki Needham have more on the new tariffs here.

Trump in a tweet earlier Monday said tariffs “have put the U.S. in a very strong bargaining position,” adding that countries “will be ‘Tariffed!'” if they don’t make fair deals with Washington.
Business groups and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are strongly opposed to another round of tariffs, which they argue will raise prices for consumers and won’t do anything to force the Chinese government to change their unfair trade practices and provide more market access to U.S. products.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday said that Beijing would respond, Reuters reported.

LEADING THE DAY

Republicans bet the House on the economy: Bob Woodward’s new best-selling book portrays President Trump’s White House in a state of chaos. The president is under fire for claiming Democrats inflated the death toll from Hurricane Maria. And Trump’s former campaign chairman is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Congressional Republicans say ignore all those distractions: The booming economy is the only thing that will matter to voters in November.

The unemployment rate is below 4 percent. The stock market is climbing. Blue-collar jobs are growing. And “help wanted” signs are abundant.

Just this week, the Census Bureau released data showing that median household income climbed to $61,400 last year, back to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crash.

“At the end of the night, when people look at their paycheck and they look at the discretionary funds that they have today that they didn’t have two years ago, they will say, ‘I may not like the president, but I like the policies,’ ” said Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus that’s closely allied with Trump. The Hill’s Scott Wong and Juliegrace Brufke tell us why here.

Wall street salaries hit highest level since 2008: The average salary on Wall Street last year hit the highest level since the Great Recession, marking the third-largest amount on record, according to a new report.

New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report Monday that put the 2017 average annual salary, including bonuses, in the securities industry at $422,500, a 13 percent increase over the previous year. The dollar amount ranks as the third highest when adjusted for inflation.

“The securities industry has the highest average salary of any industry in New York City, and accounted for 21 percent of all private sector wages in 2017 even though it accounted for less than 5 percent of employment,” the report said.

Even before accounting for taxes, the securities industry has seen its profits soar. From 2015 to 2016, Wall Street profits rose 21 percent. Last year they jumped 42 percent, reaching $24.5 billion. In the first half of this year they were on track to climb 11 percent compared to 2017.

“Wall Street has profited every year since the end of the recession in 2009, and compensation last year reached its highest point since the financial crisis,” DiNapoli said.

FINANCE IN FOCUS—Trump, Obama spar over economy. Who’s right? By many metrics, the economy is booming, and both President Trump and former President Obama want you to know that they are the one to thank.

Under Trump, the stock market hit new highs, the unemployment rate dropped to lows not seen in decades, and consumer and business confidence has soared. But Obama says Trump’s achievements may not have been so significant if he hadn’t come into office with an economy that was already humming along smoothly. Obama inherited the worst recession since the 1930s, he often reminds voters, and helped turn it around.

So who’s right? The Hill’s Niv Elis explores the question here.

GOOD TO KNOW

Some Apple products might be left off the latest round of tariffs that the Trump administration will place on Chinese products, according to Bloomberg News.

A labor group is urging state attorneys general across the country to fight the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger, arguing that the deal will kill jobs and raise prices for consumers.
Amazon launched a new section of its site Monday called Storefronts, which only lists products sold by small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S, according to the AP.

Stocks dropped to the steepest level in almost a month as investors grappled with the latest American threats to expand tariffs on Chinese goods. The dollar slipped and emerging-market currencies declined.
Regulations implemented since the 2008 financial crisis have only made the biggest U.S. banks bigger and hurt competition in the industry, said Gary Cohn, former COO of Goldman Sachs.

ODDS AND ENDS