Throughout 2025, businesses have grappled with an increasingly challenging global trade environment thanks to tug-of-war tariff policies. Inventory planning has become very difficult for supply chain managers everywhere, and the specter of even more costly duties and fees looms yet again.

Uncertainty – the word most often used in analyses of the current business environment and predictions for what’s to come later in 2023 and into 2024. Whether or not there will be a recession, and what that means, seems to depend on what economist you’re listening to.