An Emergency With No End Date: Financial Emergency Anxiety

How calling something an emergency changes the rules — and how it feels

Somehow, we’re being told there’s an emergency trade deficit.

Not a crash. Not a sudden rupture. Just the same thing it’s been for years, now renamed an emergency without any stated reason why today is different from 2017, or 2006. 

The claim is being made under federal emergency authorities that allow tariffs to be imposed without new legislation, and the Supreme Court is now being asked to decide how much discretion those emergency powers actually permit.

And that’s the key: the moment something is called an emergency, the rules change.  

I’ve had anxiety my whole life. If you showed up with five minutes left in one of my early soccer matches, you could tell whether it had been a close game by how soaked my jersey collar was from anxious chewing.

I also struggle with anger. As a high school basketball coach, I had a real problem holding it together around referees. I once got ejected from a freshman game — as the coach! — after picking up two technical fouls for jumping up and down and screaming at a young man who was genuinely doing his best.

Global trade is more abstract than youth sports but let me be very clear: a trade deficit is not an emergency. It’s not an oil shock.  

This chart shows the trade deficit as a percentage of U.S. GDP. If you follow it, you can see that the deficit did change from 2020 to 2021, but not in any way that suddenly makes it an emergency. And we certainly didn’t think it was an emergency in 2006, when it was significantly worse.

In a normal market, prices move mostly because of supply and demand in ways you can follow.

In an “emergency,” they move because someone might be angry, decide to “send a message,” or forget their own argument mid-sentence. They might jump up and down and yell at the referee.

With emergency tariffs, there’s no policy we can read and understand. No clear rules. No thresholds. No guardrails. No sense that anyone is bound by something larger than their own mood or personal interests.

For the rest of us — and certainly much of the world — it makes the dollar feel less like math and more like weather: unpredictable, personal, and sometimes hostile.

My brain keeps running quiet calculations. Is this price temporary or the new normal? Is the bottom going to fall out? What’s the worst that can happen? None of the answers stick, because the ground keeps shifting and softening. When we live in this state, our brains spin and spin, and it’s exhausting.

The word “emergency” is supposed to mean fast action and then relief. Let me say that again: relief. A goddamn Rolaid. During an oil shock, we act quickly and don’t have to wait on Congress — and that reduces financial emergency anxiety because it’s finite. We take the Rolaid. We can price it in. It’s over when it’s over, no matter how bad it was.

This new, made-up kind of emergency means indefinite suspense. An emergency with no end date. Power with no plan. Movement with no direction.

Emergency powers are supposed to respond to sudden events. They’re not supposed to be strategic tools used when real policies stall.

That’s exactly what emergency statutes are not for.

Dear Chief Justice Roberts,

Money is weird.

Emergencies are scary.

Let’s not live in one forever.

FAQ

Q1: Why do tariffs cause financial anxiety?

A: Tariffs create anxiety not because of the policy itself but because of the uncertainty they introduce. When economic conditions are labeled an 'emergency' without a clear endpoint, our brains struggle with the ambiguity, triggering stress responses even when our personal finances haven't changed.

Q2: How does crisis language affect financial decisions?

A: Research suggests that crisis framing activates threat-detection systems in the brain, which may lead to reactive financial decisions like panic selling, hoarding cash, or avoiding financial planning altogether.

Q3: How can I manage money anxiety during economic uncertainty?

A: Start by separating what you can observe from what you're being told to feel. Check your actual financial situation rather than responding to headlines. Consider whether your anxiety is coming from your circumstances or from the framing of the news you're consuming.