Roughly $11.1 trillion has been wiped away from the U.S. stock market since Jan. 17, the Friday before President Donald Trump took the oath of office and began his second term, according to data from Dow Jones Market Data.
Some $6.6 trillion of that figure was lost on Thursday and Friday alone — the largest two-day wipeout of shareholder value on record, Dow Jones data showed.
We do have evidence of the way this is almost guaranteed to go, however. There have been 2 other times in US history where the government has enacted massive tariffs on international trade: in 1828 and in 1930. The results of both times were the worst economic depressions the country has ever faced, and the world in the second case. The economy only recovered the second time thanks to the planned wartime economy, lend-lease program, and post-war rebuilding which cemented the dollar as the international currency, and the consequences of the tariffs were that the party responsible for them didn’t hold power again for 60 years.