Trump's Tariff Turmoil Raises Specter of Bond Market Lockout for African Nations
If the upheaval caused by US President Donald Trump's trade war continues, leading to continued higher yield spreads, it will be difficult for sub-Saharan African nations to issue new eurobonds, said Aurelie Martin, an economist and investment analyst at Ninety One in London.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
WATCH: Dem senator agrees with GOP that Trump's making progress on trade war
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman admitted that his party had gotten it wrong about President Donald Trump's tariffs, saying that, so far, the U.S. trade war is "going well." Asked by Fox News Digital whether he thought the Trump administration was winning the trade war, Fetterman responded, "Absolutely." "I'm a huge fan of Bill Maher, and I mean, I think he's really one of the oracles for my party, and he acknowledged it, it's like, hey, he thought that the tariffs were going to tank the economy, and then he acknowledged that it didn't," said Fetterman. "So, for me," he went on, "it seems like the E.U. thing has been going well, and I guess we'll see how it happens with China." This comes as Trump is increasing the tariff on Canada from 25% to 35% beginning on Friday, after the U.S. neighbor to the north failed to help curb the imports of fentanyl and other illicit drugs. The White House noted that Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to increase the tariff in an effort to hold Canada accountable for its role in the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. Additionally, Trump signed another executive order on Thursday to modify the reciprocal tariff rates for some countries to further address the United States' trade deficits. The action reflects Trump's efforts to protect the U.S. from foreign threats to national security and the economy by securing "fair, balanced and reciprocal trade relationships," the White House said. Read On The Fox News App Trump Aims To Reshape Global Economy With Historic New Tariffs Earlier this year, Trump announced an additional 10% tariff on all countries as well as higher tariffs for countries the U.S. has large trade deficits with. The tariffs became effective on April 9. Since then, Trump and his team have since made several trade deals with several countries. The U.S. struck a deal with the European Union in which the EU agreed to purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy and make new investments of $600 billion by 2028. The EU also agreed to accept a 15% tariff rate. The U.S. also made a deal with Japan, which agreed to invest $550 billion in the U.S. to rebuild and expand core American industries. Japan also agreed to further its own market to U.S. exports, and like the EU, Japan agreed to a baseline 15% tariff rate. However, many Democrats are digging in their heels against Trump's tariffs strategy, saying the negative effects are still on the horizon. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., forecast that, despite the increased revenue, "within a few weeks or months, you'll start seeing significant increases in most things you buy. And also, you will see disruption in terms of a lot of our industries, because they're not able to access product or supply." Trump Imposes Sweeping Tariffs On Dozens Of Countries After Landing Massive Trade Deals "When you have across-the-board tariffs, it does operate like a national sales tax, and I think people are going to be more and more hurt," predicted Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. "This is the president who said he was going to come in and reduce prices. Prices are going to rise, and they're going to rise more over time," said Van Hollen. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that "Donald Trump may beat his chest and say, 'Man, I made him take a 15% tariff or 25% tariff,' but also understand that every one of those trading partners is now looking hard all around the rest of the world to find other customers, because Donald Trump is signaling loud and clear that the United States under Donald Trump is not a reliable trading partner. And that's not good for any of us." Warren also claimed that Trump's tariffs are the reason the Federal Reserve has not lowered U.S. interest rates. "Jerome Powell said last month that he would have lowered interest rates back in February if it hadn't been for the chaos that Donald Trump was creating over trade. And the consequence has been that American families have, for six months now, been paying more on credit cards, more on car loans, more home mortgages, all because Donald Trump has created chaos," she said. Us-china Trade Deal On The Horizon, Says Treasury Secretary Meanwhile, Republicans whom Fox News Digital spoke with urged the president to double down on his tariff strategy. "I think it's exactly the right approach. It's what I have been urging the president to do, and I think the successes he's winning are big wins for America," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. In response to Democrats still predicting economic fallout because of the tariffs, Cruz sarcastically remarked, "I'm shocked, shocked that Democrats are rooting for the economy to do badly under President Trump." "It'd be nice if some Democrats would put their partisan hatred for Trump aside and actually start working together for American workers and American jobs. Unfortunately, I don't see a whole lot of Democrats interested in doing that right now," said Cruz. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., while agreeing that the tariffs have been successful, voiced that he hopes the goal is to ultimately achieve reciprocal zero percent tariffs between the U.S. and its trade partners. Democratic Senator Addresses Whether Kamala Harris Has Reached The End Of Her Political Career "Clearly, the president got a good deal from one perspective. The Europeans just caved, they did. Fifteen percent tariffs on them, zero on us, commitment to invest in our country. But the part of the deal I like the most, the E.U. and the president agreed that a whole bunch of goods would be tariff-free. That is, no American tariffs and no E.U. tariffs. It's called reciprocity, and ideal reciprocity is zero on both sides," he explained. "That's what I would like us to achieve in all the trade deals," Kennedy explained. "Let the free enterprise system work. May the best product at the best price win. That, to me, would be the perfect situation."Original article source: WATCH: Dem senator agrees with GOP that Trump's making progress on trade war
Forbes
41 minutes ago
- Forbes
Trump Says He Will Get Drug Prices Down By 1500%
U.S. President Donald Trump is now promising to get pharmaceutical companies to significantly reduce the drug prices that they are charging Americans. On Thursday, the White House announced that Trump had just sent letters to the heads of 17 major pharmaceutical companies pushing them to cut the prices that Americans have to pay down to the levels that people in other countries pay. It's not clear yet by what amount—if any—this will eventually get pharmaceutical companies to reduce prescription medication prices for those in the U.S. But chances are any price reductions that end up occurring won't be anywhere near the 1500% that Trump has promised. Trump Spoke Of 600%, 1000% And 1500% Reductions in Drug Prices Yep, 1500% is the percentage that Trump mentioned in a July reception with members of Congress. 'This is something that nobody else can do,' Trump emphasized then. "We're gonna get the drug prices down. Not 30 or 40 percent, which would be great, not 50 or 60, no. We're gonna get 'em down 1,000 percent, 600 percent, 500 percent, 1,500 percent.' Here's a video of this posted on what used to be Twitter: Getting the prices of medications—or of anything that's sold by companies for that matter—down by more than 100% is certainly something that no one else has done. It's probably something you have never even dreamed of before, since for-profit companies are usually trying to make, you know, a profit. So, it's kind of true what Trump then subsequently said, 'We will have reduced drug prices by 1,000 percent, by 1,100, 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 700, 600; not 30 or 40 or 50 percent but numbers the likes of which you've never even dreamed of before.' A video of this was also posted on X: Let's do the math. Say a bottle of a medication currently costs $100. A 25% price reduction would bring this cost down to $75. A 100% price reduction would make the medication completely free. Any reduction greater than 100% would presumably mean that the manufacturer would have to pay you. Thus, a 200% price reduction would result in a $100 payday per bottle for you. Holy, new way to earn money, Batman! If Trump can get you a 1500% reduction, hallelujah, time to replace filming YouTube videos with 'buying' medications as the way to make money. Now, the chances that the Trump administration will achieve a 1500% reduction in drug prices are probably a whole lot less than 100%. Getting pharmaceutical companies who have been enjooying very healthy profits for years to pay customers to take their drugs would be quite a trick. Plus, the pharmaceutical companies would have to change their advertisements so that instead of telling you that you may have a condition that you don't realize you have, the ads might say something like 'You're fine and don't have anything that pharmaceutical interventions can't fix. Please don't use our medications. We can't afford you to do so.' Trump Sent Letters To 17 Pharmaceutical Companies Outlining Steps To Reduce Drug Prices That 1500% number may not have been in the letters that Trump sent on Thursday to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Assuming that the letters had the right postage, they went to the leaders of AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron and Sanofi. According to the White House, the letters listed steps to reduce the prices of prescription drugs in the U.S. 'to match the lowest price offered in other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price)' The steps are as follows: The letters asserted that there's been 'global freeloading on American pharmaceutical innovation' and did warn that if the outlined steps were't taken by the pharmaceutical companies the federal government "will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices." Trump Signed An Executive Order Regarding Drug Prices In May Pharmaceutical companies can now be 1500% sure that the Trump administration has them in its political line-of-sight. Back on May 12, Trump signed an Executive Order that asserted the following: 'The United States has less than five percent of the world's population and yet funds around three quarters of global pharmaceutical profits. This egregious imbalance is orchestrated through a purposeful scheme in which drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.' That Executive Order indicated that the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, which is currently Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 'shall facilitate direct-to-consumer purchasing programs for pharmaceutical manufacturers that sell their products to American patients at the most-favored-nation price.' Americans Do Pay Higher Drug Prices Than Those In Other Countries It is true that drug prices are typically significantly higher in the U.S. than in other countries. For example, a June 2024 publication in the RAND Health Quarterly described how drug prices in the U.S. were on average nearly three times higher than those in 33 other high-income countries. Over the past two decades, yearly rises in drug prices have easily outpaced inflation. A 2024 KFF poll showed that the majority of Americans are worried about prescription medication costs being too high. Such worries shouldn't be that surprising. Many prescription medications are not like mullets or fruitcakes. Taking them is often not a choice. Your well-being and even your life could literally depend on being able to afford the medication. And many pharmaceutical companies have shown no qualms about raising the price of medications as soon as they can. For example, even after receiving substantial funding from the U.S. government, Pfizer and Moderna quickly raised the prices of their COVID-19 vaccines as soon as the government wouldn't completely pay for them, as I described in Forbes in 2023. It is also true that talk about drug prices being too high in the U.S. is not new. Yet, none of the Presidential Administrations over the past two decades have done much to significantly alter these trends. I've written about state-wide efforts to reduce drug prices, such as Propostion 61 in California. But there's been a lack of more comprehensive efforts at the federal level to do so. The challenge is that a number of trends in the current U.S. system are contributing to higher drug prices. For example, mergers and acquisitions over the years have led to fewer, larger and more dominant pharmaceutical companies with less competition. Existing cost structures and requirements make it more difficult for new pharmaceutical companies to emerge and provide more competition. Cuts in funding and support for scientific research has made it harder and harder to develop new products. Fewer new products leave patients with fewer alternatives and existing products with less competition. Consumers and different purchasers have lacked negotiating power in general. At the same time, it seems like more and more people have been getting pieces of the drug price pie. This has included various middle people such as pharmacy benefits managers and different administrators. The marketing budgets of pharmaceutical companies have continued to grow as well. On top of that, investors have expected pharmaceutical companies to have ever increasing profitability. All of this means that a single simple intervention probably has a small percentage chance of reducing drug prices in a sustainable manner. Instead, a system approach may be needed, meaning multiple interventions at different points in the system that work together in a coordinated manner. Otherwise, there may be unintended consequences. A sustainable reduction in drug prices means one in which the math works out for all patients. You don't want a situation where the prices of some drugs are reduced while those of others are raised. You also don't want a situation where the costs end up being hidden.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
India to defy Trump's threats and keep buying Russian oil, government sources say
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia, despite President Donald Trump threatening to impose penalties for doing so, two Indian officials said on Saturday Officials in India, the most populous country on Earth, told Reuters and That contradicted a statement from Trump, who on Friday told reporters his understanding was that India would 'no longer' be buying oil from Russia. "These are long-term oil contracts," an unnamed Indian official told Reuters. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.' Last week, Trump said India would face unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil in addition to a 25 percent tariff on goods. However, China and Turkey, two countries that also purchase large amounts of Russian oil, have not faced similar penalty threats. India drastically increased its import of Russian oil after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, while many other countries began to cut back it's imports. The cheap availability of Russian oil allowed India to reduce its reliance on other countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, who typically sell to Asian countries at a higher price. While India faced criticisms for doing so, the general consensus around India's increase in imports has been that it helps avoid a global surge in oil prices. It's unclear why exactly Trump has targeted India in reducing its import of Russian oil. The president has recently expressed frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to come to the peace talks table to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Friday, India's external affairs spokesperson Randdhir Jaiswal said India and Russia had a 'time-tested partnership' and that India was analyzing its energy sourcing. "On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," Jaiswal said, according to Reuters. India heavily relies on energy imports to sustain the needs of it's more than one billion population. It imports more than one million barrels per day.
