The Start of a Global Trade War?

Trump’s New Protectionist Age
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-liberation-day-tariffs-protectionism-82d0aa3a
Blowing up the world trading system has consequences that the President isn’t advertising.

Countries Targeted by Trump’s Tariffs May Strike Back at U.S. Services
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/business/economy/tariffs-foreign-goods-tariffs-us-services.html
Service sectors make up the vast bulk of the American economy, which gives trading partners some clout in trade negotiations.
 
Trump’s Tariffs: Where Things Stand
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/trump-tariffs-list-products-canada-mexico-china-b41351df
The basics on the president’s far-reaching protectionist agenda. 

US School System - Poor Student Performance Leads to Even Lower Standards

Nobody Wants to Be Responsible for Dismal K-12 Test Scores
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/florida-standardized-tests.html
Florida would join Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Alaska in lowering their testing standards or graduation requirements of late. After the absolutely dismal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores from 2024, which showed that a higher percentage of eighth graders scored “below basic” in reading than at any point in the test’s 30-year history, you would think that states’ education leaders would be putting serious time and effort into helping their students thrive. The NAEP is a congressionally-mandated federal exam given to fourth graders and eighth graders every two years and 12th graders about every four years to track educational progress across the country.
All of this is reminding me of something President Trump famously said in the spring of 2020 about coronavirus, “‘If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” If we stop testing America’s students, we’ll have fewer bad headlines about how poorly they’re doing. 

China's Trade Diversion Tactics

China’s Tariff-Dodging Move to Mexico Looks Doomed
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/china-mexico-factory-moves-trump-tariffs-f136250e
Chinese firms invested billions of dollars setting up Mexican factories to make products for the American market, shipping goods tariff-free under a U.S. trade pact now in peril. 

Trump’s Dangerous Gamble

Trump wants to rescue US jobs but ‘America first’ will backfire
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/02/trump-wants-us-jobs-america-first-plunge-world-recession/
Some of the biggest victims of the president’s protectionism will be his own voters.
 
President Trump says that countries have been ripping off the United States for decades. There is some truth to that argument — but also a lot of hypocrisy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/us/politics/trump-tariffs-global-trade.html
 
Trump Is About to Bet the Economy on a Theory That Makes No Sense
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/opinion/trump-tariffs-economy.html   
 
As Trump Stokes Uncertainty, the Fed Asks Businesses Where It Hurts
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/business/economy/trump-tariffs-fed-economy.html
The central bank’s outreach to companies has taken on new significance as the outlook for growth and inflation gets cloudier. 

Don't Underestimate China

I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/trump-tariffs-china.html
Tom Friedman:
It’s downright scary to watch this close up. President Trump is focused on what teams American transgender athletes can race on, and China is focused on transforming its factories with A.I. so it can outrace all our factories. Trump’s “Liberation Day” strategy is to double down on tariffs while gutting our national scientific institutions and work force that spur U.S. innovation. China’s liberation strategy is to open more research campuses and double down on A.I.-driven innovation to be permanently liberated from Trump’s tariffs. 

Management Consultancy - A Big Con?

A Good Move by the Trump Administration:
Consulting Giants Offer Billions in Cuts to Federal Contracts. It Might Not Be Enough.
https://www.wsj.com/business/consulting-giants-offer-billions-in-cuts-to-federal-contracts-it-might-not-be-enough-f7c872d2
Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and other firms proposed price concessions this week but are expected to be asked to dig deeper.

The Big Con by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington review – how consultancy firms cash in
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/16/the-big-con-by-mariana-mazzucato-and-rosie-collington-review-how-consultancy-firms-cash-in
 
In The Big Con Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington reveal how management consultants promise to fix governments but end up enfeebling them
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2023/02/consultancy-bleeds-britain-dry-book-review-covid-19 

Taking A.I. Seriously

Are We Taking A.I. Seriously Enough?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/are-we-taking-ai-seriously-enough 

AI promises to free up time. But what if it spares us from learning, writing, painting and exploring the world?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/30/ai-promises-to-free-up-time-but-what-if-it-spares-us-from-learning-writing-painting-and-exploring-the-world 

AI agents are here. How afraid should workers be of losing their jobs?
https://fortune.com/2025/04/01/ai-agents-jobs-automation/
Related: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ai-agents-afraid-workers-losing-100000503.html

Is America a Kleptocracy?

Is America a Kleptocracy?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/25/america-kleptocracy-trump-musk-corruption/
Here’s how life could change for the rich, poor, and everyone in between. 

Interesting Marital Trend

The New Marriage of Unequals
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/the-new-marrying-down/ar-AA1BZyf3
Women are now more likely to marry a less-educated man than men are to marry a less-educated woman. 

America's Global Standing

How World Order Changes
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/world-order-what-it-is-and-how-it-could-change-under-trump-by-joseph-s-nye-2025-04
World order is a matter of degree: it varies over time, depending on technological, political, social, and ideological factors that can affect the global distribution of power and influence norms. It can be radically altered both by broader historical trends and by a single major power's blunders.
 
Ten weeks that shook the world
https://www.ft.com/content/510069b5-75e5-4f1d-b382-56217f3866bb
On many fronts, and with deliberate haste, America is vaporizing its soft power.
 
China senses an opportunity in Trump’s cultural revolution
https://www.ft.com/content/80ab4ac8-0deb-4deb-b54a-7d0d06d12f1c
Policymakers in Beijing believe they will benefit from the destruction of America’s global credibility.
 
America cannot afford to break global investor trust
https://www.ft.com/content/82968772-d157-4dc6-b2d8-8b3c0f1ac9f3
Even the most powerful nation in the world needs foreign investment. 

The Limits of Trump’s Hardball Diplomacy
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/limits-trumps-hardball-diplomacy
Why the Western Hemisphere Is Turning Away From America and Toward China.

Kirkland and Costco’s Bargaining Power

How Costco’s Kirkland Signature Brand Became a Powerhouse
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/how-costcos-kirkland-signature-brand-became-a-powerhouse-29a8132d
Now a third of Costco’s annual sales, store brand Kirkland is a draw for shoppers and a negotiating tool with suppliers. 

Early Signs of a Consumer Pullback

Americans are spending less as they brace for new tariffs
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-spending-less-brace-tariffs-120504861.html
Americans are tapping the brakes on spending - pulling back on dining out, hotel stays and other expenses, as they boost their savings ahead of new tariffs and continued economic uncertainty.