28 h. ago Trump’s tariffs are reckless – but they hold a key lesson for Democrats | David Sirota

There is a middle ground on tariffs. But Democrats’ free-trade advocacy allows Trump to play the populistTo tariff or not to tariff? Today’s tweet-length political discourse pretends this is a binary choice. Donald Trump has pitched across-the-board import levies as a panacea to rebuild American manufacturing, while Democrats insist the president’s proposals are an attempt to crash the economy, and that their party should tout its opposition to all tariffs.But neither the policy nor politics of this moment are that neat and simple. While too few or too many tariffs can destroy economies, there is a Goldilocks zone that’s just right. It’s just being omitted from the conversation. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago The ‘new world order’ of the past 35 years is being demolished before our eyes. This is how we must proceed | Gordon Brown

We have seen the conflict and tragedy that can follow when an old era collapses. Countries that believe in multilateralism must come together nowThis is the second in a two-part series on the global response to Donald Trump’s tariffs Read part one: Trump is pushing the world towards recession. By learning the lessons of 2008, we can still prevent itAfter a week that started with the worst financial volatility in recent history and ended with the most serious escalation so far of the China-US conflict, it is time to distinguish the tectonic shifts from the tremors. If nothing changes, the 2020s risks being remembered as this century’s devil’s decade – the term historians once used for the 1930s. It will be defined not just by seven million people who have died of Covid-19 and rising global poverty and inequality – but also by a dismembered Ukraine, a burnt-out Gaza and little-reported atrocities in Africa and Asia, each testimony to the violent displacement of a rules-based global or...

Politics

5 d. ago The big lesson for Europe? Trump backed down under pressure | Alexander Hurst

The EU neither ‘kissed ass’ nor unleashed its most powerful trade weapon. Now it must provide the world with an alternative to US chaosMy condolences to everyone who spent days trying to play 5D chess with Donald Trump’s market-exploding tariff mess. Where Trump is involved, there is a cloud of malevolent chaos, and there is grift amid the chaos. What grandmasters there are to be found are almost certainly grandmasters of grift.When markets dump $10tn in three days and then gain trillions back in a single afternoon on the erratic decisions of one deeply corrupt person, you can be sure that a small number of people have made immense sums of money out of that volatility. Were the people responsible for abnormal spikes buying into the markets (including call options on various indexes and exchange-traded funds) on Wednesday morning – and again, 20 minutes before the tariff announcement went public – extraordinarily lucky? Were they in the right Signal group? Or were they just simply fo...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump is pushing the world into recession. By learning the lessons of 2008, we can still prevent it | Gordon Brown

As I discovered then, global problems need international responses. By working together, we can protect jobs and living standardsThis is the first in a two part series on the global response to Donald Trump’s tariffsNo more than a narrow window of opportunity remains if we are to prevent an unnecessary global recession. As China and the US decouple, disruptive trade wars are intensifying and threaten to descend into currency wars; import, export, investment and technology bans; and financial fire sales that will destroy millions of jobs worldwide. It seems barely credible that the world is being brought to its knees by one economy, outside of which live 96% of the population, who produce 84% of the world’s manufactured goods. But even though US officials have previously talked of a tariff policy of “escalate to de-escalate”, Donald Trump’s aim is to force manufacturing back to the US, and his 90-day relaxation of some tariffs does not mean he intends to defuse the crisis.On Monday, ...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump is pushing the world towards recession. By learning the lessons of 2008, we can still prevent it | Gordon Brown

As I discovered then, global problems need international responses. By working together, we can protect jobs and living standardsThis is the first in a two part series on the global response to Donald Trump’s tariffsNo more than a narrow window of opportunity remains if we are to prevent an unnecessary global recession. As China and the US decouple, disruptive trade wars are intensifying and threaten to descend into currency wars; import, export, investment and technology bans; and financial fire sales that will destroy millions of jobs worldwide. It seems barely credible that the world is being brought to its knees by one economy, outside of which live 96% of the population, who produce 84% of the world’s manufactured goods. But even though US officials have previously talked of a tariff policy of “escalate to de-escalate”, Donald Trump’s aim is to force manufacturing back to the US, and his 90-day relaxation of some tariffs does not mean he intends to defuse the crisis.On Monday, ...

Politics

8 d. ago I was in London for the Liz Truss debacle. 5 lessons for Trump — and all of us.

I was in London for the Liz Truss debacle. 5 lessons for Trump — and all of us.  MarketWatch

Politics

8 d. ago Opinion: I was in London during the Liz Truss debacle. Here are 5 lessons for Trump — and the rest of us.

Opinion: I was in London during the Liz Truss debacle. Here are 5 lessons for Trump — and the rest of us.  MarketWatch

Politics

3 w. ago What the accidentally leaked war group chat reveals about the Trump administration | Moira Donegan

Thanks to the Signal leaks, we can see how the administration acts when they think they are in private. It’s not a pretty sightPerhaps one of the greatest lessons of the Donald Trump era, for me, has been in learning the difference between being shocked and being surprised. And indeed it was a bit shocking to learn, via an essay published by the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, that a high-profile journalist had been included on a chat on the commercial messaging app in which a military strike on the Houthi rebels in Yemen was coordinated – including discussions of the timing of the attack, debates about political messaging, personnel coordination and weapons to be used – seemingly without anyone noticing that he was there.It was shocking that their incompetence was so fortuitous – that the person they included, seemingly accidentally, in their unsecured group chat about war plans was someone so uniquely equipped to broadcast their idiocy to a large audience. But it was ...

Politics

4 w. ago The UK is cutting welfare spending to urge people to work. Critics say it will hurt the vulnerable

Britain’s Labour Party government has announced an overhaul of the welfare system it says will save the cash-strapped administration 5 billion pounds, or $6.5 billion

Economics