The last excuse that diehard defenders of President Trump’s tariff policies have advanced now lies in ruins. Trump had put in place exorbitant tariffs, these defenders acknowledged, but this was just a negotiating tactic, to get the targeted countries to lower their own tariffs on American goods. But if that is his aim, he is pursuing it in a blunderbuss fashion. As Paul Craig Roberts, a strong defender of tariffs, says: “Trump’s position on tariffs is problematical for many reasons. First, let me say that historically tariffs were a legislative issue.

Millions of people around the world were at the edge of their seats over the weekend, waiting to hear whether Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff’s indirect talks with the Iranian foreign minister would ratchet down tensions or would break down and bring on a major Middle East war.

Zillow, which is famously bullish on housing prices, is now projecting that U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, will fall 1.7% between March 2025 and March 2026. 

April 2025 Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: “The index for new orders also fell sharply, from 8.7 in March to -34.2 this month, its lowest reading since April 2020.” 

Published in The New York Sun.

The economic sage saw that the attempts of central bankers to control the markets is based on a ‘pretense of knowledge.’

Trump demands more easy money and lower interest rates. Powell isn’t dovish enough for Trump. 

According to the Treasury Department’s monthly report on spending and tax revenue, the US Federal government is still very much on track to finish the fiscal year with more than two trillion dollars in new debt. Nor is there any sign so far of any significant change in spending patterns since Donald Trump was sworn in in late January.

The Spring 2025 issue of the Independent Review—a quarterly journal published by the libertarian-leaning Independent Institute in Oakland, California—features several papers presented at a retrospective symposium on Robert Higgs’s contributions to our understanding of government expansion during times of upheaval or crisis. Higgs’s original work—and the symposium’s comments on it—can help economists and historians looking ahead to possible future trajectories for the country.

Jamaica has emerged as a prime destination for investment under the leadership of Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The country has fostered a business-friendly environment, and recent legislative reforms suggest that conditions for investors will continue to improve.