The nation that the Trump administration slapped with the heftiest tariff this week is a small, rural, landlocked country in southern Africa that is among the world’s poorest. Lesotho, which makes denim that goes into American-branded jeans, was hit with a 50 percent tariff. It was among several lower-income countries on the continent that were … Read more
The notion that the Federal Reserve will rush in to rescue investors in a crisis has comforted investors for decades. But in the big market downturn induced by President Trump’s tariffs, no Fed rescue is in sight. Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, made that clear on Friday. The tariffs are much “larger than … Read more
President Trump’s new tariffs on more than 100 countries used the same simple formula to calculate the rate for each of them. The formula’s central value is the trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports between each country and the United States, for the year 2024. The slightly more detailed math looks like this: … Read more
Some Republican senators on Capitol Hill, including one of President Trump’s most ardent supporters, have signaled their uneasiness to the sweeping global tariffs that the president announced this week and that sent global markets reeling. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, warned on Friday that a future where other countries slap retaliatory tariffs on U.S. … Read more
The U.S. agricultural industry is bracing for the potential of tens of billions of dollars in losses after China on Friday announced a 34 percent retaliatory tariff on imports from the United States. China’s counterpunch to worldwide levies announced by the Trump administration this week will hit American farmers hard. China, which consumes 14 percent … Read more
More than 500 law firms on Friday threw their support behind some of their embattled peers, declaring that President Trump’s recent crackdown on the law firm industry poses “a grave threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the rule of law itself.” The firms, 504 in all, signed a so-called friend of the … Read more
Republicans in Congress cannot use an obscure legislative maneuver to stop California’s ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, the Senate parliamentarian ruled on Friday. The decision dealt a blow to efforts by the Trump administration to quickly kill policies that promote electric vehicles. California had received a federal waiver under the … Read more
Investors around the globe this week sent President Trump a clear message about his new tariff policy, announced triumphantly as a remaking of the economic order. They don’t like it. The S&P 500 fell 6 percent on Friday, bringing its losses for the week to 9.1 percent. Stocks hadn’t fallen this far this fast since … Read more
Bostonians like to brag about their celebrities with big personalities — David Ortiz, Mindy Kaling, Mark Wahlberg, to name a few. And then there’s Eliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture. While not well known outside New England, Mr. Tatelman has been a fixture for years on local television, hawking mattresses and sofas in humorous, relatively low-budget … Read more
Of all the countries that expected to be immune to President Trump’s tariffs, Switzerland was at the top of the list. The tiny Alpine nation, famous for its political neutrality, fine chocolates and precision watches, had eliminated industrial tariffs recently on all imports, including American goods. It has kept the European Union at arm’s length … Read more