It’s the economy, so stupid
Tony Romm and Colby Smith, Pivoting From Tax Cuts to Tariffs, Trump Ignores Economic Warning Signs, NYTimes, May 24, 2025.
One day after House Republicans approved an expensive package of tax cuts that rattled financial markets, President Trump pivoted back to his other signature policy priority, unveiling a battery of tariff threats that further spooked investors and raised the prospects of higher prices on American consumers.
For a president who has fashioned himself as a shrewd steward of the economy, the decision to escalate his global trade war on Friday appeared curious and costly. It capped off a week that saw Mr. Trump ignore repeated warnings that his agenda could worsen the nation’s debt, harm many of his own voters, hurt the finances of low-income families and contribute far less in growth than the White House contends.
The tepid market response to the president’s economic policy approach did little to sway Mr. Trump, who chose on Friday to revive the uncertainty that has kept businesses and consumers on edge. The president threatened 50 percent tariffs on the European Union, and a 25 percent tariff on Apple. Other tech companies, he said, could face the same rate.
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has raced to enact his economic vision, aiming to pair generous tax cuts with sweeping deregulation that he says will expand America’s economy. He has fashioned his steep, worldwide tariffs as a political cudgel that will raise money, encourage more domestic manufacturing and improve U.S. trade relationships.
Concluding paragraphs, businesses are stalled because they can’t plan for the future:
Mr. Goolsbee recalled a recent exchange with the chief executive of a construction business, who said: “We’re now in a put-your-pencils-down moment.” Businesses, Mr. Goolsbee said, now “have to wait if every week or every month or every day there’s going to be a new major announcement.”
“They just can’t take action until some of those things are resolved,” he added.
“Let’s Destroy Harvard”
Jess Bidgood and Michael S. Schmidt, Why Harvard Has No Way Out, NYTimes, May 23, 2025.
Jess Bidgood: I’d imagine that for international students, this makes the prospect of attending Harvard feel deeply uncertain — even unappealing. Where would the university find itself, even if it wins?
Michael S. Schmidt: Even if Harvard runs the table in court, it’s still persona non grata with the Trump administration, and that means that it’s going to continue to face investigations, including from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. [...]
Harvard finds itself in this impossible position. If it continues to fight the administration, it will continue to get hit with these extraordinary uses of federal power to punish the university.
Jess Bidgood: What’s happening at Harvard behind the scenes?
Michael S. Schmidt: Harvard officials have privately determined they are in a major, major, major crisis with very few, if any, good off ramps.
If you’re a law firm and you get hit with an executive order, you can go to court and get a restraining order. You can go back to work and things are semi-normal. Harvard is much more complicated than that.
Is there anything happening behind the scenes to de-escalate this?
Harvard’s board, as far as we know, won’t let the university go back to the table. The board members don’t trust that you can negotiate with Trump. And the things that Trump keeps hitting Harvard with are so destructive. How could you go back to the table?
Reading List of Fake Books
Talya Minsberg, A.I.-Generated Reading List in Chicago Sun-Times Recommends Nonexistent Books, NYTimes, May 21, 2025
The summer reading list tucked into a special section of The Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer seemed innocuous enough.
There were books by beloved authors such as Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee; novels by best sellers including Delia Owens, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Brit Bennett; and a novel by Percival Everett, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner.
There was just one issue: None of the book titles attributed to those authors were real. They had been created by generative artificial intelligence.
It’s the latest case of bad A.I. making its way into the news. While generative A.I. has improved, there is still no way to ensure the systems produce accurate information. A.I. chatbots cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false, and they often make things up.
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