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An escalating trade war could wipe out the benefits of the Republican tax law passed last fall, President Trump's former top economic adviser said Thursday.

Gary Cohn, who served as Trump's director of the National Economic Council, said that retaliatory tariffs between countries could drive up inflation and prompt American consumers to take on more debt, possibly pushing the country into another economic downturn.

“If you end up with a tariff battle, you will end up with price inflation, and you could end up with consumer debt,” Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, said at a Washington Post Live event. “Those are all historic ingredients for an economic slowdown.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...conomist-says/