Anthony Scaramucci, the outspoken investment banker and former White House Communications Director, criticized the Trump administration's enduring trade disputes, arguing the tariffs ultimately hurt the American people.
"The current trade war and the strategy of using tariffs is a flawed strategy," Scaramucci told Cheddar on Tuesday.
Scaramucci said that tariffs, which are essentially taxes, especially hurt Americans making less that $100,000 annually. "They eat up their living standards," he said.
Scaramucci is a prominent New York financier and the founder of Skybridge Capital. He served a brief stint as White House Communications Director in 2017, which gave him what he called an "11-day PhD" on Washington culture. His tenure was cut extremely short after he gave an interview to The New Yorker in which he criticized other members of the administration with expletives and derogatory language.
"By using the tariffs, you have this effect of slowing down the economy and creating a level of unpredictability for CEOs large and small around America," Scaramucci said.
Since taking office, Trump has threatened punitive tariffs against several countries ranging from Mexico to India. The White House most notably implemented tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports in 2018, and has threatened to levy more on an addition $300 billion worth of goods.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
Alyson Wilson, VP of Brand Innovation at Alo Yoga, joins Cheddar News to discuss the yoga apparel company entering the metaverse and teaming up with Spring Studios for New York Fashion Week.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
Green tech investments had a stellar 2021 amid a wave of SPAC mergers and massive valuations. But that momentum seems to be slowing down as investors turn to safer companies amid tightening monetary policy and skepticism about profitability and reliability amid SEC investigations. What happens next for this next-generation group of startups? Sophie Karp, an equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, joins Closing Bell to discuss.
