There are not many certainties in the world of money, but this traditionally has been one of them: When life turns scary, people take refuge in American government bonds. Investors buy U.S. Treasuries on the assumption that, come what may — financial panic, war, natural disaster — the federal government …
Britain has watched President Trump’s tariffs with a mix of shock, fascination and queasy recognition. The country, after all, embarked on a similar experiment in economic isolationism when it voted to leave the European Union in 2016. Nearly nine years after the Brexit referendum, it is still reckoning with the …
A dizzying escalation of tariffs has unraveled a trade relationship between the United States and China forged over decades, jeopardizing the fate of two superpowers and threatening to drag down the world economy. The brinkmanship displayed by the two countries has already far exceeded the battles they waged during President …
President Trump spared Russia from the tariffs he had imposed on 180 other nations in a bid to reshape global trade. But that did not exempt the country from the ensuing economic havoc. The price of oil, the lifeline of Russia’s economy and war machine, has fallen nearly 15 percent …
For the past week, President Trump has been urging calm in the face of the financial chaos that he created and resisting calls for him to rethink his approach. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” he told Republicans on Tuesday as the massive tariffs he had imposed sent global …
Behind President Trump’s decision to hit some of America’s largest trading partners with stiff tariffs is his fixation on the trade deficit that the United States runs with other nations. But many economists say that is a poor metric for judging the quality of a trade relationship. The steep tariffs, …
The global economic system that the United States has shaped and steered for more than three-quarters of a century was animated by a powerful guiding vision: that trade and finance would be based on cooperation and consent rather than coercion. That system, for all its faults, entrenched the United States …
At a backyard barbecue in San Pedro, Argentina, last May, Rafael Flaiman spotted a friend wearing a light blue blazer that looked a little too snazzy for the occasion. He needled the guy a bit. What’s with the jacket? Mr. Flaiman asked. “La China pays,” the friend replied, with a …
Follow live updates on the Trump administration here. Buried in China’s latest government budget were some numbers that add up to an alarming trend. Tax revenue is dropping. The decline means that China’s national government has less money to address the country’s serious economic challenges, including a housing market crash …
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary pioneered many of the themes dear to conservatives in the United States, railing for years against “migration insanity,” “the woke virus” and “gender madness.” Now Mr. Orban is engaged in an effort that veers away from the orthodox conservative view that the state should …