Bloomberg (May 27)
“The great deal maker has yet to make even a decent deal as president; he hasn’t negotiated anything on health care, immigration or infrastructure, and the trade negotiations with China may be a bust.” In Korea, Donald Trump’s “gut instincts” have resulted in a blunder that’s “worse than it looks: Kim Jong Un appears shrewd. China is stronger. And U.S. allies know not to trust Washington.”
Tags: Allies, Blunder, China, Deal maker, Health care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Kim Jong Un, Korea, Trade negotiations, Trump, Trust
Bloomberg (April 13)
A “$105 billion ‘ghost stock’ blunder” created market upheaval in Korea. An error at the South Korean brokerage Samsung Securities Co. gave employees 1,000 Samsung Securities shares each instead of 1,000 won (less than $1). “In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth—on paper—about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.” As employees sold the ghost shares, the stock price “plunged” 12% and “many retail investors got burned.”
Tags: Blunder, Brokerage, Burned, Employees, Market upheaval, Retail investors, Samsung Securities, South Korea, Stock
Wall Street Journal (March 1)
“Donald Trump made the biggest policy blunder of his Presidency Thursday by announcing that next week he’ll impose tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. This tax increase will punish American workers, invite retaliation that will harm U.S. exports, divide his political coalition at home, anger allies abroad, and undermine his tax and regulatory reforms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7% on the news, as investors absorbed the self-inflicted folly.”
Forbes (March 24)
“Vladimir Putin has made a strategic blunder that could rival the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Moscow, counting on Western weakness, may, in the short term, succeed in carving up the country or ending the 22-year existence of an independent Ukraine. But it has set in motion forces that will severely damage Russia, as well as Putin’s own reign.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Blunder, Damage, Moscow, Putin, Russia, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Weakness, West
Washington Post (July 9)
The U.S. made a huge “blunder” in the 1960s and is still paying the price. “Since 1961, the federal government has balanced its budget only five times. Arguably, only one of these (1969) resulted from policy; the other four (1998-2001) stemmed heavily from the surging tax revenue of the then-economic boom. We are now facing the consequences of all these permissive deficits.”
Washington Post (June 4)
“Can anyone doubt that the euro’s creation in 1999 was a huge blunder? It aimed to promote European prosperity and unity, but it’s doing just the opposite.” Rather than uniting Europe, “the euro now sows rancor” and “actually hinders economic revival.”
Tags: 1999, Blunder, Economic revival, euro, Prosperity, Unity
