This year marks the 250th anniversary of both the Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith’s seminal book, The Wealth of Nations. Karl Smith delivered the 2026 Lev Dobriansky Distinguished Lecture in Political Economy at George Mason University on Tuesday. He was asked to speak on Smith”s influence on U.S. public policy, especially trade and protectionism.
The EU and the US agreed on a customs agreement two weeks ago, but the uncertainties remain great. Maximilian Mann's mechanical engineering company in Spelle is particularly affected by the US tariffs. Sabine Balk explains what you need to know about current US tariffs in this article.
Some members of Congress are supporting Trump's aggressive trade policies. They hope these policies will increase U.S. exports of agricultural and other products. In this post I'm going to look at some Bureau of Economic Analysis data on exports broken down by country. The data is for value of exports rather than volume, and is in nominal terms. Some notable points in the data are that exports to Canada are slightly down, exports to China are down and exports to Switzerland are up.
Inflation has increased to 4.2%, the highest in 3 years, because of the war on Iran. Trump has a net approval rating on the economy of negative 34 points. He started with a rating of positive 12 points in January 2024. Trump is fabricating or exaggerating news about running oil through Strait of Hormuz at night to counter the inflation shock announced on Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit allowed some of the tariffs imposed by the White House to remain in effect while a legal battle continues. The case was brought by a coalition of more than 20 states, led by Oregon, and small businesses including Burlap & Barrel and Basic Fun. The dispute centers on the administration’s use of a decades-old trade law.
The Supreme Court's tariff decision in Learning Resources v. Trump offers a useful opening window into the Court’s oral-argument term. Conservative justices accounted for 64.9% of the justice words and liberal justices for 35.1%. The difference between the two blocs was 5,896 words across the entire argued docket.
Donald Trump's quip about inflation is tone-deaf. Working Americans are struggling under the weight of higher grocery bills, rent spikes, and punishing interest rates. The inflation is outpacing wage growth, which is bad news for the president. The World Cup is a train wreck.
The U.S. threatened 10 per cent tariffs on imports made with forced labour from Canada. The Liberal government is planning to introduce legislation to strengthen its ban on the imports. Critics warn it might create more red tape and fall short of the government's pledge to eliminate the scourge from supply chains.
Today a report from the Department of Labor showed that the U.S. has more than 200,000 people. Trump claimed that he was telling reporters that the United States has taken out the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-five, and twenty-six.