Defense & Aerospace Business Report

On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities, Sash Tusa of the independent equity research firm Agency Partners, and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian to discuss global market reaction to President Trump’s sweeping tariffs that are being compared by economists as the largest abrupt tax hikes since the Vietnam war if not World War 2; how aerospace and defense stocks fared as the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 10 percent of its value in two days driving markets to their worst day since 2020; despite a warning by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that nations not retaliate otherwise they would face higher tariffs, nations retaliated anyway including China that blocked rare earth exports to the United States; Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dryly noted that tariffs risk higher inflation and lower economic growth; despite the loss of nearly $6 trillion in market value and da