Attention Economy


Friday, April 4, 2025

Global Consequences of Trump's 'Little Disturbance'

Trump and His ‘Little Disturbance’ From Tariffs
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-disturbance-markets-trade-243b36ef
 
A US tariff pathology is unleashed upon the world
https://www.ft.com/content/47c267fd-e981-4c4d-985a-e0934483f1f9
There can be no logic-washing of Donald Trump’s tariffs. This isn’t part of a carefully-designed industrial policy or a cunning strategy to induce compliance among trading partners or a choreographed appearance of chaos to scare other governments into obedience. It’s wildly destructive stupidity, and the generations of American, and particularly Republican politicians, who allowed things to slide to this point are collectively to blame.
 
A Market-Rattling Attempt to Make the American Economy Trump Always Wanted
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-economic-vision-tariff-manufacturing-262180a4
The president dreams of factories reopened and towns revitalized by tariffs, but stocks plunged on fears economic growth will suffer.
 
What the Trump Dollar Plunge Means
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-investors-dollar-trade-economy-stephen-miran-d27a670a 
 
Trump’s chaos-inducing global tariffs, explained in charts
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trump-global-tariffs-charts
 
Trump’s Tariffs Are Designed to Backfire
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-tariff-to-end-all-tariffs/ar-AA1CezLk
Instead of leading to reduced trade barriers, the new global tariff plan is all but guaranteed to raise them.
 
Trump’s tariffs are designed to extend American power
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2025/04/trump-tariffs-american-power-liberation-day

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Thursday, April 3, 2025

The Stock Market Selloff

Why a stock market selloff may trigger a US recession by VIVEKANAND JAYAKUMAR, The Hill - 04/03/25
https://thehill.com/opinion/5229397-wealth-inequality-consumption/
 
 
Gap, Nike and Levi’s took years to diversify from China. Now sky-high tariffs on nations like Vietnam are ruining plans and tanking their stocks
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/gap-nike-levi-took-years-160843472.html 

Trade War Sets Off ‘Max Pessimism’ in Global Markets as Stocks Plunge
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/business/trump-tariffs-global-stock-markets.html
 
In Worst Stock Market in Years, Slow and Boring Has Eased the Pain
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/business/stock-market-investing-retirement-pain-stocks-bonds.html
People have avoided huge losses by holding old-fashioned, well-balanced investments, an approach our columnist is banking on for the future.

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History Lesson: The Gilded Age

The Story of the Gilded Age Wasn’t Wealth. It Was Corruption.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/history-rich-influence-government/682266/
Richard White, the historian and author of The Republic for Which It Stands, explains what made the late 19th century gilded. 

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The Role of the Government in a Modern Society

'Who is Government' with Michael Lewis | Masters in Business
https://youtu.be/5FmOes9K4o0 

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A German Comeback?

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Trump's Tariffs and the Future of Globalization

Trump Tariffs Aim to Bring Down Curtain on Era of Globalization
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/trump-tariffs-us-global-manufacturing-294b0f55
President Trump is sending a clear message to U.S. and foreign companies alike: The era of globalization is over. But while he wants companies to return production to the U.S., it won’t be easy.

Trump’s Trade War Risks Forfeiting America’s Economic Primacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/business/trump-tariffs-dollar.html
The U.S. has steered an economic order for 80 years based on trade and trust. President Trump is blurring that vision. 


US tariff shock underscores the instability of a shifting world
https://www.ft.com/content/70faaac9-a9c5-4654-87fd-8b52792d486f


This Market Upheaval Could Be Just the Beginning
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/market-upheaval-from-trumps-tariffs-could-be-just-the-beginning-e70303f3
Investors who think the return to high tariffs will hammer the economy into recession should expect much bigger falls in stocks and bond yields. 

Trump takes America’s trade policies back to the 19th century
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/04/03/trump-takes-americas-trade-policies-back-to-the-19th-century
 
What Rebalancing the US Economy Really Requires
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economic-rebalancing-according-to-trump-treasury-secretary-bessent-by-glenn-hubbard-2025-04
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s defense of President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs as a step toward “rebalancing” the US economy misses the point. While some economies, like China and Germany, need to increase domestic spending, the US needs to increase national saving.
 
Even Americans don’t want Trump’s barmy tariffs, writes Douglas Irwin
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2025/04/03/even-americans-dont-want-trumps-barmy-tariffs-writes-douglas-irwin
The trade historian predicts that the damage will be geopolitical as well as economic.

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Trump’s Tariff ‘Formula’


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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

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. 

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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. 

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China's Trade 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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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 

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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Taking A.I. Seriously


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 

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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. 

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