“Around 300 million companies worldwide connected by an estimated 13 billion supply links now face unprecedented uncertainty.” — Foreign Affairs
***
Maybe the best way to make sense of the modern global economy is by thinking of it in ecological terms. Almost every good or service we consume or produce is connected one way or another with almost every other good or service worldwide through a complex web of interrelated technologies, supply chains and trade policies.
Therefore, there really are no ”national” economies any longer — that’s just one of the fantasies Trump sells to his MAGA crowd.
But it is a dangerous fantasy because it leads to jingoistic policies like Trump’s trade wars, which undermine global security and economic stability.
The full extent of globalization became apparent during the Covid pandemic, when shortages of necessities illustrated how utterly dependent we all are on each other across space and time. Of course, Trump doesn’t see that interdependence as a strength but a weakness, so he is trying to reverse engineer our economy.
That will fail. Globalization can’t be reversed; all he can do is inflict unnecessary damage here and overseas by his antagonistic tariff policies lifted from the first decade of the 1900s.
Maybe Trump and his advisers are beginning to realize that they can’t fight the future with the past and that this isn’t going to end well for them. Then again, Trump can always ride off over the horizon on Qatari Air Force One.
HEADLINES:
Conservatives block Trump agenda bill from advancing in major setback for GOP leaders (NBC)
DHS Is Considering Reality Show Where Immigrants Compete for Citizenship (Wall Street Journal)
Producer Swears ICE Reality Show for Citizenship Won't Be a Complete Dystopian Nightmare (The Daily Beast)
A Reality Show Where Immigrants Compete for U.S. Citizenship? D.H.S. Is Considering It. (NYT)
Chaos is what could reign for untold thousands of children and their parents if the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Trump administration's latest executive order to go into effect, even on a limited basis. [HuffPost]
The ‘Modest’ Ruling That Could Kneecap Our Legal System (NYT)
Trump is taking credit for Middle East deals that predate his presidency (WP)
9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything (NYT)
Sudden fees. No warning. Welcome to shopping with tariffs in 2025. (WP)
Russia and Ukraine agree prisoner swap but peace talks fail to make progress (Guardian)
How DOGE’s grand plan to remake Social Security is backfiring (WP)
Nearly 100 people killed in Israeli attack on north Gaza, rescuers say (BBC)
UN aid chief defends using ‘genocide’ in Gaza remarks to the Security Council that Israel rejects (AP)
How India and Pakistan share one of the world's most dangerous borders (BBC)
The World Needs Better Balance Sheets (Foreign Affairs)
On a remote Australian island, the birds are so full of plastic they crunch (WP)
Outsourcer in Chief: Is Trump Trading Away America’s Tech Future? (NYT)
OpenAI Takes on Google, Anthropic With New AI Agent for Coders (Bloomberg)
‘We’re Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI’ (Atlantic)
U.S. Unveils Sweeping A.I. Project in Abu Dhabi (NYT)
Trump Casts Cabinet In ‘Les Misérables’ Amid Kennedy Center Boycott (The Onion)
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