Very Serious

2 weeks ago | joshbarro.com | Josh Barro

Dear readers,Last week, Donald Trump achieved something no president has before: He singlehandedly caused the S&P 500 to fall 10 percent in two days. The declines have continued today, and the signal from the ticker is unmistakable: His harebrained tariff plan is an economic disaster. A recession is now likely, with all the concrete human harms that entails: job losses, business closures, bankruptcies.

3 weeks ago | joshbarro.com | Josh Barro

Dear readers,While the idea that the imposition of huge tariffs constitutes “liberation” is ridiculous, some of the other descriptors the White House is using for President Trump’s big tariff announcements are accurate enough. His sweeping global tariffs will be “transformative,” “historic,” and “bold,” they say.

1 month ago | joshbarro.com | Josh Barro

Dear readers,There’s a conversation — occurring, as these conversations do, mostly among coastal elites — about how Democrats can better promote abundance. But for that conversation to end up being useful, it needs to be connected to what the average American thinks abundance even is. To that end, it’s worth thinking about Sen.

1 month ago | joshbarro.com | Josh Barro

Dear readers,Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has done something that has made a lot of Democratic partisans very angry: He has said that he will join a fraction of his Democratic colleagues in voting to allow the Republican-drafted, House-passed continuing resolution to come to the Senate floor, so Republicans can pass it with a simple majority vote. Democrats could, if they wished, block the CR from coming to a vote and force a government shutdown.

1 month ago | joshbarro.com | Josh Barro

Dear readers,Business executives and investors don’t know how to respond to President Trump’s ever-changing tariff policies. If they were confident that tariffs would remain fairly modest, they could proceed with their investment plans undisturbed. And if they knew that a particular immodest tariff policy was on its way in, they could at least adjust their plans to account for the coming policy environment.