Washington Post (January 12)
In his inaugural address President Trump promised that “the immense power of the state” will never again “be weaponized to persecute political opponents.” This is “the biggest broken promise of his second term. The latest example is the criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell…. It’s apparent that the real cause of the investigation is Trump’s clashes with Powell over interest rates. Such lawfare has a way of backfiring, and this threat could fortify the central bank’s independence rather than weaken it.”
Tags: Backfiring, Broken promise, Criminal investigation, Fed, Interest rates, Investigation, Lawfare, Persecute, Political opponents, Powell, Real cause, Threat, Trump, Weaponized
Wall Street Journal (September 17)
“Industrial production in the eurozone returned to growth in July, a reflection of resilience as U.S. tariffs threaten to crimp demand.” Monthly “output edged up 0.3%… after a 0.6% slump in June.” The July “increase was driven by a strong 1.5% upswing in production in Germany.” While the tariff threat remains, “the eurozone’s industry has so far proved relatively resilient, having grown in two of the four months since President Trump’s announcement of levies on global trading partners in early April.”
Tags: 0.3%, Demand, eurozone, Germany, Growth, Industrial production, July, Levies, Resilience, Threat, Trading partners, Trump, U.S. tariffs, Upswing
The Economist (September 6)
“Insurgents who want to smash the system often end up running it.” Europe’s hard right is a threat to the economy and leading or polling strong in Britain, France and Germany. “In Italy they are in power; in the Netherlands they briefly led a coalition; and in Poland in June their presidential candidate saw off the nominee from the centre. By 2027 the hard right could be in office in economies worth getting on for half of European GDP.” The best case scenario is ” stagnation, at worst a bond-market rout.”
Tags: Bond-market rout, Britain, Economy, Europe, European GDP, France, Germany, Hard right, Insurgents, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Polling, Power, Smash, Stagnation, Threat
Reuters (August 8)
“President Donald Trump is instructing agencies to scrap ‘reputation risk or equivalent concepts’ from the customer assessment equation.” Banks will like the reduction in paperwork, but this move will “make it harder to spot fraud.” Trump has already “rolled back enforcement of all sorts of financial misdeeds. Further clearing the way for more of them is a far bigger threat than the fanciful idea that profit-seeking banks turn away good business on purely ideological grounds.”
Tags: Agencies, Banks, Customer assessment, Enforcement, Financial misdeeds, Fraud, Ideological, Paperwork, Profit, Reputation risk, Threat, Trump
The Guardian (May 25)
Recent research suggests “that even if carbon emissions are slashed to meet the internationally agreed target of 1.5C, sea level rises will become unmanageable during this century.” The “more ominous” fact, however, is “that even the existing 1.5C goal is moving out of reach.” Globally we are on course for “at least 2.5C of heating,” likely melting “the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets” and triggering “‘really dire’ sea level rise of around 12 metres.” Still, we are not helpless. “People will adapt to sea level rises in the future as they have in the past. This is not to deny or underplay the scale of the threat, but to stress the importance of preparing for changes which are now inevitable, as well as trying as hard as possible to avoid the worst-case scenarios.”
Tags: 1.5C, 12m, 2.5C, Adapt, Carbon emissions, Dire, Greenland, Ice sheets, Inevitable, Ominous, Preparing, Research, Sea level, Threat, Unmanageable, West Antarctic
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
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
The Guardian (January 24)
“Waiting for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was like watching a tsunami gather force. Everyone could see the threat approaching. But its scale was still shocking as it hit land, and what damage it wreaks will ultimately take months and years to determine.”
Tags: Damage, Determine, Force, Inauguration, Months, Scale, Shocking, Threat, Trump, Tsunami, Waiting, Wreaks, Years
Le Monde (November 6)
Trump’s second term marks “the end of an American world” and, for Europe, will prove “even more perilous” than his first term. “There is a real risk that Europe will be divided or even fractured…. This threat is existential for the European Union, and its leaders need to be aware of it and prepared to confront it, without waiting for Trump to take office.”
Tags: American world, Divided, EU, Europe, Existential, Fractured, Leaders, Perilous, Prepared, Risk, Second term, Threat, Trump
New York Times (October 31)
“As investors, economists and world leaders weigh the prospects of Donald Trump winning the election, one of their biggest questions is how he would potentially upend global trade.” It’s not just the threat of tariffs, but also measures like what the candidate refers to as the “Trump reciprocal trade act” through which he hopes to punish the European Union for “supposedly not buying enough American-made goods.”
Tags: Candidate, Economists, Election, Global trade, Investors, Prospects, Punish, Tariffs, Threat, Trump, Upend, World leaders
