Barron’s (February 6)
“Of all Trump’s potential trade war targets, Mexico is by far the most vulnerable, with exports to the U.S. close to a quarter of gross domestic product. China’s figure is less than 3%.” But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a relative political novice, “taught a master class on how to play a weak hand.” She “deftly handled Donald Trump” while maintaining approval (at nearly 80%) at home.
Tags: Approval, China, Deftly, Exports, GDP, Mexico, Novice, Sheinbaum, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Vulnerable
Washington Post (February 5)
“Freaked out by the prospect of a plunging stock market, President Donald Trump backed off his plan to slap 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. He covered up his retreat with the assertion that his threat had prodded America’s neighbors into sending resources to combat drug trafficking at its borders — something, it turns out, they were already doing.”
Tags: 25%, Borders, Canada, Drug trafficking, Freaked out, Mexico, Plunging, Retreat, Stock market, Tariffs, Threat, Trump
Reuters (February 4)
“Japan’s exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products rose 3.7% to a record high in 2024, despite China’s ban on seafood imports following Tokyo Electric Power’s discharge from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.” These exports reached 1.507 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) last year, up nearly from 1.5 trillion yen from 2023. “Exports to China plunged 29.1% to 168.1 billion yen in 2024, but exports to the United States rose 17.8% to 242.9 billion yen, making the U.S. Japan’s top export destination for the first time in 20 years.”
Tags: 2024, 3.7%, Agricultural, Ban, China, Exports, Fishery, Forestry, Fukushima, Imports, Japan, Record high, Seafood, Tepco, U.S.
Le Mode (February 2)
“The first measures of the European AI Act will come into effect on Sunday, February 2.” The first stage “only concerns certain prohibited uses.” More specifically, “this Sunday will see a ban on certain uses of AI deemed unacceptable by the AI Act.” Expanded “implementation of the text, which is the most ambitious in the world at this stage, will be gradual and is still the subject of debate, if not outright challenges.”
Tags: Ambitious, Ban, Challenges, Debate, European AI Act, Gradual, Implementation, Prohibited, Sunday, Unacceptable
Wall Street Journal (February 1)
“President Trump will fire his first tariff salvo on Saturday against those notorious American adversaries . . . Mexico and Canada. They’ll get hit with a 25% border tax, while China, a real adversary, will endure 10%.” Should the president Trump persist, this will become “the dumbest trade war in history” for he would be imposing “25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason.”
Tags: 10%, 25%, Adversaries, Border tax, Canada, China, Dumbest, Mexico, Notorious, Reason, Tariff, Trade war, Trump
Wall Street Journal (January 31)
“President Trump’s advisers are considering several offramps to avoid enacting the universal tariffs on Mexico and Canada that he had pledged.” Even if Trump implements tariffs, the “frantic negotiations with Canada and Mexico” might continue, hoping to reach a resolution before the measures come into effect. Increasingly, North American businesses and labor groups are arguing that “across-the-board tariffs would snarl continental supply chains, drive up prices, and increase reliance on trade with adversarial regimes such as China and Venezuela.” Still, “the situation is fluid and Trump still may go through with his vow to slap 25%, across-the-board levies on imports from America’s two largest trading partners.”
Tags: Advisers, Businesses, Canada, China, Fluid, Labor, Mexico, Negotiations, Offramps, Prices, Supply chains, Trump, Universal tariffs, Venezuela
The Guardian (January 30)
“Whatever the truth about DeepSeek, China’s tech sector is light years ahead on strategy and investment.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise. “China took a strategic view of the industries in which it wanted to be competitive, invested heavily to get them established, protected them when they were in their infancy, and waited patiently for the results.” China had more patent filings in 2023 that the rest of the globe combined. It graduates double the number of STEM PhDs as the U.S. And it “is already the biggest exporter of electric vehicles.” Even without DeepSeek, “the west is already losing the AI arms race.”
Tags: AI arms race, China, Competitive, DeepSeek, EVs, Invested, Investment, Losing, Patent filings, PhDs, Protected, STEM, Strategy, Tech sector, U.S.
Washington Post (January 29)
“Self-driving cars appear to be safer than those with human drivers.” We should welcome their introduction. For example, “Waymo robotaxis have logged 33 million miles, mostly ferrying passengers in San Francisco and Phoenix.” In those two cities, “compared with cars driven by humans, Waymo vehicles have been involved in 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer crashes that resulted in injury and 81 percent fewer crashes severe enough to deploy the air bags.” Moreover, the reality is probably even better as some of these accidents were caused by other drivers.
Tags: Accidents, Air bags, Crashes, Human drivers, Injury, Passengers, Phoenix, Police, Robotaxis, Safer, San Francisco, Self-driving cars, Waymo
New York Times (January 28)
“Stock futures are looking up after Monday’s markets blood bath, as investors take stock of what the Chinese start-up DeepSeek really means for the artificial intelligence business.” Many questions remain, but “the emerging consensus is that DeepSeek… has upended the race for A.I. supremacy. Apple and Meta might end up being better positioned than initially thought, while Nvidia might not be in a disastrous position.”
Tags: AI, Apple, Blood bath, Consensus, DeepSeek, Investors, Markets, Meta, Nvidia, Start-up, Stock futures, Supremacy, Upended
Institutional Investor (January 28)
“With Trump once again using tariffs as a key tool in his trade policy, investors are bracing for renewed volatility,” especially given the “frantic pace of changes.” Some investors, however, “remain optimistic about Trump’s potential economic impact.” For example, “KKR’s Henry McVey believes that strong markets and robust corporate earnings will offset any geopolitical risks and tensions.”
Tags: Corporate earnings. Geopolitical risks, Economic impact, Frantic, Investors, KKR, Markets, McVey, Optimistic, Tariffs, Tensions, Tool, Trade policy, Trump, Volatility