Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs were foolish – but offer little reason for slashing your stock exposure

My mid-March column aged like milk souring as tariff news flowed trickle to torrent. US President Donald Trump's tariffying April 2nd "Liberation Day" announcement turned markets upside down, rocking investors globally. No one knows what comes next—even Trump, seemingly. His tariff fixation was never secret. So, many wonder why markets fell so suddenly. After all, don't stocks pre-price widely known factors? Indeed! But all his previously threatened or proposed tariffs totaled just 0.75 per cent of US GDP—maximum. Negative, but too little to render recession, spur inflation or wreak the heavy havoc pundits feared. While they were a larger share…