The Economist (August 29)
“The background music of Donald Trump’s second term has been the sound of norms breaking. On economic policy alone, the president has used tariffs to usurp Congress’s taxing powers and launched attack after attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve, which he accuses of keeping interest rates too high.” While it may be “tempting to tune the noise out,” the Treasury’s recent intervention in bond markets “deserves to echo far and wide.” And “so long as government debt stays high,” more of these unconventional Treasury follies will probably ensue, but America will ultimately come to “regret Scott Bessent’s bond-market misadventures.”
Tags: Attack, Background, Bessent, Bond markets, Congress, Debt, Economic policy, Federal Reserve, Government, Independence, Interest rates, Intervention, Misadventures, Noise, Norms breaking, Regret, Tariffs, Taxing powers, Treasury, Trump, Unconventional, Usurp
Financial Times (August 28)
In the U.S., “corporate profits have hit a record high while workers’ slice of the pie has sunk to historic lows, fuelling discontent among many Americans and a growing political backlash.” In this tale of two cities, corporate “pre-tax earnings hit an annualised $4.8tn in the second quarter, or 18 per cent of national income… the highest share since the aftermath of the second world war.” Meanwhile, “employees’ share from wages and benefits fell to 60 per cent, the lowest level since the 1950s.”
Tags: $4.8tn, Benefits, Corporate profits, Discontent, Employees, Historic lows, Political backlash, Pre-tax earnings, Q2, Record high, Sunk, U.S., Wages, Workers, WW2
New York Times (August 27)
“Propping up the yen. Buying back U.S. debt. Americans might wonder: What is the Treasury Department doing? Over the past month, it has made some unusual moves to tamp down an alarming surge in interest rates. The global history of maneuvers like these suggests that they rarely work on their own — and can often be worse than doing nothing.”
Tags: Alarming, Buying, History, Interest rates, Maneuvers, Propping up, Surge, Tamp down, Treasury, U.S. debt, Unusual, Worse, Yen
Wall Street Journal (August 26)
“Americans are now paying roughly 75% more for aluminum than the rest of the world. Steel prices in the U.S. are also about 64% higher than in northern Europe.” This is partly because the “metal tariffs are stacked on top of other tariffs on China, which is the world’s largest producer of steel and aluminum.” Under Trump, “the metal tariffs (including copper) have raised some $46.9 billion in revenue for the government during the current fiscal year through June, plus $21.8 billion in 2025. That’s … a nearly $70 billion tax on Americans.”
Tags: $70 billion, 75%, Aluminum, Americans, China, Copper, Government, Metal, Northern Europe, Producer, Revenue, Stacked, Steel prices, U.S.
Bloomberg (August 25)
“A growing chorus of Wall Street strategists” are “warning that markets are potentially overlooking risks to the AI trade tied to the November election.” They believe “voter backlash will drive increased scrutiny of AI infrastructure with policy pressure concentrated around data center regulation.”
Tags: AI infrastructure, AI trade, Chorus, Data center, Growing, Markets, November election, Overlooking, Policy pressure, Risks, Scrutiny, Strategists, Voter backlash, Wall Street, Warning
The Times (August 24)
“Chinese consumers buying less means Beijing must rely on exports more than ever to grow its economy. Yet, the affordability and sheer volume of Chinese exports flooding world markets is undercutting global competitors, a trend that worried Europeans have dubbed “China shock 2.0”.
The Guardian (August 23)
“The calamitous collapse of trade negotiations between Canada and the United States is a warning to nations worldwide that pursuing any kind of dialogue with the current US administration is doomed at the outset, according to observers who say this recent episode indicates seeking a fair deal is futile.”
Tags: Administration, Calamitous, Canada, Collapse, Dialogue, Doomed, Fair deal, Observers, Trade negotiations, U.S., Warning, Worldwide
The Atlantic (August 22)
“Yes, Trump can hurt Canada more than Canada can hurt Trump. That part of Trump’s thinking is true. But wars are not decided only by the question Who can inflict more pain? Wars are also decided by the question Who can endure more pain? Trump’s failure to accept this truth is why he lost the Iran war—and why he is losing his trade wars.”
Tags: Canada, Endure, Failure, Hurt, Inflict, Iran war, Lost, Pain, Thinking, Trade wars, True, Trump, Truth, Wars
San Francisco Chronicle (August 22)
“This week rising bond yields forced the U.S. Treasury Department into an unusual intervention and raised the specter of higher borrowing costs putting the brakes on consumer spending, the lifeblood of the economy. It also sparked concerns that investors might finally be thinking twice about financing a seemingly endless flow of government borrowing.” The Treasury intervention could fail since it doesn’t address “the deeper forces pushing yields higher: federal debt above $40 trillion, persistent deficits, inflation concerns and heavy borrowing tied to the AI investment boom.”
Tags: $40 trillion, AI investment, Bond yields, Boom, Borrowing costs, Concerns, Consumer spending, Deficits, Economy, Financing, Government, Inflation, Intervention, Investors, Rising, Treasury, U.S., Yields Federal debt
Fortune (August 21)
“For now, at least, Southeast Asian nations are benefiting from the AI boom,” but “economists who study the region are worried that AI’s gains won’t be evenly shared across Asia—and that for Southeast Asia’s economies, which sit on the lower end of the value chain, the boom could be more of a “short-term blip.”
Tags: AI, AI boom, Asia—and Economies, Benefiting, Boom, Economists, Gains, Shared, Short term, Southeast Asia, Value chain
