The heads of America’s biggest banks are reportedly disconnected from the White House’s tariff efforts. To illustrate this fact, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday (April 9) shared the story of a recent meeting in Washington D.C. attended by the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The conversation turned to their last communication with President Donald Trump, with many saying they had not had a substantive conversation with the president since the 2020 pandemic, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter

China and the European Union announced new trade barriers on Wednesday in direct response to President Donald Trump's steep tariffs, which, according to Reuters, have triggered a global trade war and bolstered the likelihood of a recession.The president continues to downplay the market's volatility, describing the tariffs as "permanent" but also claiming that his administration is pressuring other leaders to ask for negotiations."BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!" he wrote on social media.But what, exactly, is a tariff?More: Trump threatens China with additional 50% tariff as markets struggle: Live updatesWhat is a tariff?A tariff is a form of tax imposed on imports from another country and economists generally agree that trade barriers raise consumer prices and negatively impact economic output and income, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit.Tariffs create more demand for domestic manufacturers, but those companies are also part of the global supply chain impacted by taxation, experts have previously explained to USA TODAY.How do tariffs correlate to the stock market?Worries that tit-for-tat tariffs will boost inflation and push the global economy into recession have sparked stock market sell-offs around the globe.U.S. stocks are coming off their worst week since 2020, and the S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq in a bear market defined as at least 20% below its recent peak.JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that tariffs "will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater possibility of a recession." In a letter to shareholders of the nation's largest bank, Dimon described the financial landscape as "unsettling" but said the U.S. economy has shown resiliency "at least until recently."He also said that US consumers are still spending, and businesses remain mostly healthy. He also acknowledged Trump's recurring criticism of the federal deficit."It is important to note that the economy has been fueled by large amounts of government deficit spending and past stimulus," Dimon said.Contributing: Medora Lee, John Bacon, Francesca Chambers, Joey Garrison, Savannah Kuchar, Andrea Riquier and Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY and ReutersGabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What are tariffs? How they are affecting the stock market

This week, America’s biggest banks are set to report their quarterly earnings. But as Reuters reported Tuesday (April 8), investors are less likely to be focused on profits than on the banks’ view of the economy amid steep U.S. tariffs. Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo said the biggest impact of the tariffs in the quarters to come “will be higher reserves for loan losses as the odds of recession rise.”