Washington Post (March 1)
President Trump’s “gambit to take control of Ukraine’s deposits of lithium, graphite, cobalt, rare metals and so forth — after calling for buying Greenland and taking over Canada, in part to nab their vast troves of critical minerals — suggests that he is fashioning a 19th-century strategy to work in the 21st.” While he may like this strategy, “holding a gun” to other nations “seems unwise if the United States wants to avoid becoming an international pariah and pushing erstwhile allies into the arms of its adversaries.”
Tags: 19th-century strategy, Adversaries, Allies, Canada, Cobalt, Control, Deposits, Gambit, Graphite, Greenland, International pariah, Lithium, Minerals, Rare metals, Trump, U.S., Ukraine
The Economist (February 8 Issue)
“If dealmaking means threatening catastrophe in order to win small gains, then Donald Trump is the master of the art.” Despite the collective sigh of relief when he suspended tariffs on Canada and Mexico in return for “some old promises,” the story is not necessarily over: “Donald Trump could still blow up global trade.” There is a real chance that “ideology, complacent markets and a need for revenue may still lead to big tariffs.”
Tags: Canada, Catastrophe, Complacent, Dealmaking, Global trade, Ideology, Mexico, Promises, Relief, Small gains, Tariffs, Threatening, Trump
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
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
Bloomberg (January 26)
“Oil fell as President Donald Trump imposed his first set of sanctions and tariffs in a move that highlighted risks to the global economy and to trade.” U.S. tariffs and other sanctions have now been imposed on Columbia, and the Trump “administration has also threatened actions on flows of goods from a host of other nations, including Canada and China.” On top of that economic uncertainty, Trump is advocating for “OPEC to bring down prices, potentially raising the pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.”
Tags: Canada, China, Columbia, Global economy, Oil, OPEC, Prices, Risks, Russia, Sanctions, Tariffs, Threat, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty, War
Wall Street Journal (December 6)
“Better productivity growth has helped the U.S. power past similar economies such as the European Union’s and Canada’s…. Over the past five years, quarterly year-over-year productivity growth has averaged 2.1%, a sharp improvement from growth over the 10 years prior.” This “critical development… has allowed for strong economic output and declining inflation, even as the labor market cools.”
Tags: 2.1%, Canada, declining inflation, Economic output, Economies, EU, Improvement, Labor market, Power, Productivity growth, Strong, U.S.
Washington Post (November 30)
“After years of tumult in the housing market, builders across the country are betting that looser regulations and what they hope will be an economic boom will make it easier to build and sell. They’re also hoping those tailwinds more than offset possible hazards of Trump’s agenda, including ramped-up tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China that could push up costs for materials, and aggressive immigration policies that could mean the deportations of construction workers.”
Tags: Build and sell, Builders, Canada, China, Construction, Deportations, Economic boom, Hazards, Housing market, Immigration, Materials, Mexico, Regulations, Tailwinds, Tariffs, Trump, Tumult, Workers
New York Times (November 27)
“The inflation risk stalking the markets eased over the summer,” but is now “front and center again as investors contend with a Trumponomics crackdown on immigration, a rising trade-war risk and a potential bonanza of tax cuts.” Trump’s “latest trade threats show how uncertain the outlook could be”. Since he vowed “to impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico…analysts have been gaming out the potential impact.” It could be an opening gambit of little consequence, but “economists fear that it could add bottlenecks and costs to supply chains and reignite inflation, and that it could scramble the Fed’s policy on interest rates.”
Tags: Bottlenecks, Canada, China, Costs, Crackdown, Fed, Immigration, Inflation, Interest rates, Investors, Markets, Mexico, Risk, Supply chains, Tariffs, Tax cuts, Trade war, Trumponomics, Uncertain
Wall Street Journal (November 26)
“Trump’s promise to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on Chinese imports on the first day of his presidency could lead to higher prices, just as the country appears to be turning a corner on inflation.” Economists at Yale’s Budget Lab calculated that these tariffs, combined with the three countries’ expected retaliatory measures, “would raise U.S. consumer prices by 0.75% next year,” which would “amount to more than $1000 in lost purchasing power per household.”
Tags: $1000, Canada, China, Consumer prices, Economists, Imports, Inflation, Mexico, Purchasing power, Retaliatory measures, Tariffs, Trump, U.S., Yale
