Mid-Missouri Business Week: Bull economy reflects fewer business regulations

The S&P 500 index had the best performance in the month of August since 2014. At closing bell Aug. 31, it closed up a total of 3 percent for the month.

ABC 17’s Deborah Kendrick sat down with Dr. Joseph Haslag, the director of the Economic and Policy Analysis and Research Center at the University of Missouri, to talk about this bull market. He said we are in a pretty lengthy recovery right now.

Haslag said the profitability of companies in the near future looks good, which helps bump up the stock markets.

When it comes to tariffs, Haslag says growth could be knocked down nearly half a percentage point.

“The tariffs are detrimental,” Haslag said. “You’re playing a game. This is a repeated game that gets played between countries, and we’re playing against one country that may have a different objective function than the U.S. government does.”