
The tariffs, those barbed tendrils of policy, have long been a thorn in the side of trade. As Fortune once noted, they are a storm brewing in the harbor, not the open sea. Wall Street, ever the pragmatist, knows this: tariffs gnaw at profit margins like frost on tender shoots and dim the glow of consumer demand. Yet the S&P 500 (^GSPC), that barometer of ambition, climbs. Michelle Gibley of Charles Schwab (SCHW), with the patience of a gardener, reminds us that the economic toll of tariffs is not averted, merely delayed. A seed left too long in the soil will rot.