Ramstad: Readers see early signs of tariffs and miss printed stock tables

I regularly hear from Minnesotans backing President Donald Trump, but I have yet to hear a persuasive argument that America’s trade deficit is such a problem that it’s worth the chaos Trump has created to fix it.

The impacts extend into everyday life, down to the price a contractor will quote for a garage construction project, as one reader mentioned to me recently.

In the 16 columns since my last roundup of reader reaction, I wrote three about Trump’s trade or economic policies and one about the state’s budget challenge.

That means 25% of my output touched on politics, well above my normal intrusion in that realm. Trump forced me to rethink something I’ve long believed and that I wrote in my first column: With all economic matters, government plays the minor role.

I’ve never seen one person exert so much power on the economy and, so far, with such a negative effect.

You know things are really going badly when Republicans, who normally are pro-growth and pro-market, say things like the economy needs a “detox,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has.

Trump’s postponement on April 9 of his “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries calmed the markets. Whether threatened or real, the effects of broad tariffs, which are simply new taxes by government on businesses (and eventually passed on to consumers), are already being felt.

After my column in mid-March about Trump’s tariffs and St. Paul’s rent control, Jeff Eull of St. Paul wrote that he was seeking quotes from contractors to build a garage later this year, and all were concerned about the prospect of fast-changing costs.

“One contractor told me that his pricing would only be good for 30 days and would have to look at his bids again,” Eull said. “I told him that I would not be able to make a decision that soon as I am only starting this process and have not even approached the city for a permit and the possible variance I may need.”

That’s a nuisance, but it’s the kind of thing everyone will experience in the weeks and months ahead. Eventually, the accumulation of inconveniences and higher costs will force people to reckon with whether Trump’s policies are worth it.

All that said, I confess that I received the most e-mail over the past two months not about Trump’s actions but about one by my bosses, the editors of the Minnesota Star Tribune. Last month, we joined many other newspapers in no longer printing stock tables in our daily paper.

For a week or so, I replied to readers who were upset by the decision. Readers’ habits vary and, even now, some are just discovering that the tables are no longer there.

Let me just briefly share the editors’ thinking. The Associated Press, which provided the tables that were customized for the Star Tribune to emphasize Minnesota-based companies, made some formatting changes that forced changes in our production process. That led the editors to consider whether to continue them.

Consumer demand for the printed paper continues to decline, while usage of our digital products is rising. The change is societal, and nothing we can do is going to change that fundamental condition of our business.

On another newspaper-related note, I want to correct something I said about the Star Tribune’s former building in my March 22 column about tearing down empty skyscrapers. Our old building torn down a decade ago, I wrote, was part of a “Newspaper Row” when it was built.

Actually, when it was built, the Star Tribune’s ancestor publications moved away from a row of newspaper buildings that had stood on 4th Street for much of the early 20th century.

“Home to all the broadsheets and tabloids, it had the usual support systems — i.e., bars — clustered nearby to lubricate the scribes," James Lileks wrote in a 2015 column.

My column last week about the development of real estate for new houses by the town of Sauk Centre in central Minnesota led readers to write in with other examples of innovation in community development. One is Ottertail, near Wadena (which I mentioned), that is selling a number of lots for $1 to nonprofit organizations to build child care businesses and a community center.

I also heard from Gregg Wright, an Olmsted County commissioner I met last fall, who said a new development of smaller-footprint houses I visited at the time had been finished. The houses were priced at $280,000. Since then, Wright reports, a new builder has approached the county with another creative way to build houses, to be priced at $350,000. The County Board agreed to proceed with the builder’s idea on eight new homes, he said.

Finally, I want to say I’ll very much miss Minneapolis businessman Harry Lerner, who died April 8 at age 93. Lerner, who grew up on the North Side, served in the Army and went to the University of Minnesota, founded Lerner Publishing, now one of the nation’s largest publishers of children’s books.

I visited the company for a 2017 feature story. Harry passed control to his son Adam in 2007, and Adam lifted the firm to new heights. Harry still loved going to his office, something he explained last summer when I wrote a column about President Joe Biden’s reluctance to leave his job.

And Harry’s office was something to see: a large corner room overlooking 1st Avenue in the Warehouse District, with couches, tables, four walls of books stretching up to the ceiling and piled on every surface. When I visited Harry in hospice last month, he described some new books he’d like me to read and said he’d give them to me when he got back to the office.