For the past week, President Trump has been urging calm in the face of the financial chaos that he created and resisting calls for him to rethink his approach. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” he told Republicans on Tuesday as the massive tariffs he had imposed sent global markets into a tailspin. “BE COOL!” he said in a …
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Trump Reverses Course on Global Tariffs, Announcing 90-Day Pause
President Trump on Wednesday dramatically reversed course on steep global tariffs that have roiled markets, upset members of his own party and raised fears of a recession, saying just hours after stiff levies went into effect on nearly 60 countries that he would pause them for 90 days. But the president did not back down on China and instead raised …
Read More »Trump Officials Say Tariff Talks Are Underway but ‘Drastic’ Change Is Needed
President Trump’s top trade official defended the administration’s aggressive tariff moves on Tuesday, arguing before a Senate committee that the U.S. economy is facing “a moment of drastic, overdue change” after decades of factories moving overseas and hurting the American working class. The remarks by Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, came as the Trump administration faced blowback from …
Read More »Trump Threatens Tariffs Against Countries That Buy Venezuelan Oil
President Trump said on Monday that he would crack down on countries that bought Venezuela’s oil by imposing tariffs on goods those nations sent into the United States, claiming that Venezuela has “purposefully and deceitfully” sent criminals and murderers into America. In a post on Truth Social, the president said countries that purchased oil or gas from Venezuela would be …
Read More »U.S. Could Run Out of Cash by July, Analysis Finds
The United States could run out of cash to continue paying its bills by mid-July if Congress does not take action to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, according to an analysis on Monday by the Bipartisan Policy Center. That deadline, known as the “X-date” — the moment when the United States is unable to meet its financial obligations …
Read More »Trump Expands Trade Threats in Global Game of Chicken
For the second time this week, President Trump has threatened to disrupt trade with a close ally for retaliating in a trade war that he started — a tactic that could lead to compromise, or to economic spats that spiral further out of control. On Thursday morning, Mr. Trump tried to cow the European Union into submission, threatening in a …
Read More »Trump Bows to Economic Reality With Tariff Delays and Exemptions
A month ago, President Trump announced that he would impose sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico before reaching a last-minute deal to delay them for 30 days. This week, after markets revolted when the tariffs were put in place, Mr. Trump watered them down with a monthlong reprieve for automakers. And then on Thursday, he opened up even …
Read More »A Tariff Tantrum: the Upheaval from Trump’s Trade Policies
Meltdown The markets have spoken. The S&P 500 is on track for its worst weekly loss since the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis two years ago. And investors have wiped out post-Election Day gains as President Trump’s dizzying start-stop tariff policy fuels volatility on trading floors and in boardrooms. Another test comes this morning with the jobs report …
Read More »Markets and Corporate America Are Unfazed by Washington Chaos, for Now
Even by Washington standards, the second Trump presidency has begun in frenetic fashion: mass firings at federal agencies, tariff threats against allies and foes alike, and haggling over how to get a Republican budget through a narrowly divided Congress. Business leaders and corporate investors are confident that things will turn out fine, at least for them. “Markets aren’t showing all …
Read More »What Privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Means
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two giant mortgage finance firms, have been controlled by the federal government for nearly 17 years, but a long-dormant idea of making them private businesses is starting to make the rounds in Washington again. Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said in an interview this week that coordinating the effort to privatize …
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