After weeks of bluster and escalation, President Trump blinked. Then he blinked again. And again. He backed off his threat to fire the Federal Reserve chairman. His Treasury secretary, acutely aware that the S&P 500 was down 10 percent since Mr. Trump was inaugurated, signaled he was looking for an offramp to avoid an intensifying trade war with China. And …
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Scott Bessent Accuses IMF and World Bank of ‘Mission Creep’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday called for major overhauls to the missions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank but said that the United States remained committed to maintaining its leadership role at the global economic institutions. The comments, made at a speech on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the I.M.F. and the World Bank, …
Read More »Both Admired and Resented by Trump, Japan Scrambles to Stay Close
This month in the White House’s Rose Garden, as he held up a placard showing the global wave of tariffs he wanted to impose, President Trump paused to fondly recall a fallen friend. “The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo, was — Shinzo Abe — he was a fantastic man,” Mr. Trump said during the tariff announcement on April 2. “He …
Read More »Trump’s 10% Tariff May Be Less Onerous but Still Raises Prices and Threatens Trade
When Donald J. Trump championed the idea of a 10 percent blanket tariff during the campaign, many people, whether for or against, were taken aback by how radical the idea was. Alarms sounded about higher inflation, lost jobs, slower growth or recession. The prospect seemed so outlandish that most economists and Wall Street analysts who gamed out the possibilities tended …
Read More »Trump Seeks to Lower Drug Prices Through Medicare and Some Imports
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday outlining a series of actions intended to lower drug prices, including helping states import drugs from Canada. The policies were more modest than proposals to reduce drug prices that Mr. Trump offered in his first term. And one of his new directives could increase drug prices. It calls for the Trump administration …
Read More »How Trump Might Unwittingly Cut Emissions From Online Shopping
Fast-fashion giants like Shein and Temu have been doing booming business in the United States in recent years, in part because of a tariff exemption that’s helped to keep prices low on packages shipped from China. Now, President Trump has ordered the loophole closed as part of new tariffs, starting with packages from China and Hong Kong. It could have …
Read More »Trump’s Tariff Threat for Drug imports Poses Big Political Risks
President Trump’s decision to move a step closer to imposing tariffs on imported medicines poses considerable political risk, because Americans could face higher prices and more shortages of critical drugs. The Trump administration filed a federal notice on Monday saying that it had begun an investigation into whether imports of medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients threaten America’s national security, an effort …
Read More »Trump’s Dilemma: A Trade War That Threatens Every Other Negotiation With China
President Trump came into office sounding as if he were eager to deal with President Xi Jinping of China on the range of issues dividing the world’s two biggest superpowers. He and his aides signaled that they wanted to resolve trade disputes and lower the temperature on Taiwan, curb fentanyl production and get to a deal on TikTok. Perhaps, over …
Read More »Trump Signals Semiconductor Tariffs Are Coming ‘Very Soon’
President Trump is expected to announce further tariffs this week, probably including levies on semiconductors, as he moves forward with a trade investigation related to national security. The move would raise the cost of importing chips, which are a vital component in electronics, cars, toys and other goods. The United States is heavily dependent on semiconductors from Taiwan and elsewhere …
Read More »DOGE Cuts Hobble Office That Would Aid NASA and SpaceX Mars Landings
An office in an obscure corner of the federal government that NASA has relied on to safely land astronauts on the moon and robotic probes on Mars is facing pressure to cut its tight-knit team of experts by at least 20 percent, according to two people familiar with the mandate. The thinning of the staff has already started at the …
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