00:28There's a lot of questions about what happens when these tariffs are imposed, but you know how it is.
00:33There's a bunch of companies that advance ordered their product.
00:37They may have warned about price increases, but they haven't yet passed on the prices.
00:42The customers may accept the price increases or they may not.
00:45So we'll just have to see how it plays out.
00:48I've been describing this when I'm talking to businesses, which, you know, I do every day.
00:53I've been describing this as driving through fog.
00:55It's just very hard to drive when it's really foggy.
00:58And businesses are afraid to accelerate because they don't know what's around the next curve.
01:03And they're also afraid to put on the gas because you don't want someone crashing into you.
01:07And so by and large, they're pulling over and putting on the hazards.
01:11Well, to that point that you're constantly speaking to businesses, is anyone making big investments at this point or hiring decisions?
01:18From your conversations, do you get the sense that firms are closed to announcing layoffs?
01:24Well, so on the hiring side, you're definitely not seeing that.
01:27Lots of hiring freezes of lots of deferred hiring.
01:30And you see that in the data as well.
01:32In terms of investment decisions, investment moves that were already underway seem to be continuing.
01:37I've heard very few cancellations.
01:40But some of the big things that you might expect to happen when the terms of trade change, I think people are still waiting to get whatever they think is final.
01:49In terms of layoffs, you clearly hear and see about it in the government sector and in those sectors related to government spending.
01:55But outside of that, I just think people have the hazards on.
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