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Buzz Feed
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
32 American Cultural Quirks That Irritate The World
Reddit user Butterfly-girl19 recently asked, "What elements of US culture annoy you?" Americans and non-Americans alike flooded the replies with the American qualities, habits, and pieces of culture they find the most frustrating. Here's what they shared: "Constantly saying the US is the 'best country in the world.' It's usually said by people who don't even own a passport. And best for what? Medical bankruptcy rates? Incarceration rates? National debt?" "Everything is so bloody commercial. You have a baby coming? Throw a party. You know what the baby's sex is gonna be? Another party! Hey, it's early November, let's start broadcasting Christmas specials already! Sorry, I don't get it." "Not understanding that what many Americans perceive to be far-left is center or center-right everywhere else on earth. The politics of the US is so skewed rightward that anything that isn't effectively 'grind up the poors for meat' is considered communism." "The drinking age. At 18, you can legally go to jail, join the army, and vote on who will run the entire country, but you can't have a beer." "The degree to which so-called 'trickle down economics' still pervades the general approach to the economic and legal systems. Everyone is sitting here being robbed blind by corporations 24/7, and then patting each other on the backs about all the sacrifices we make so that our employers, banks, favorite online retailers, etc. can hit their revenue targets." "The lack of community that is due to dominant car culture. A lot of Americans are very badly socially adjusted because of this atomization. Extremely performative culture. Many Americans act like what they see on TV/internet media. It's tiresome and inhumane. I think this leads to an unacceptably high number of people treating others like sources of entertainment/products. Anti-urbanism, anti-intellectualism, and anti-progressive attitudes are very common. Being reactionary as opposed to critical political discourse due to media overexposure. A lot of Americans, including pretty much all conservatives/MAGA, only care about making the 'other guy' look bad. There are no other thoughts there. That's exactly how our political entertainment networks prime people to think, and it works. As such, there is very little room for critical analysis of our society and how we can improve it. We're totally stymied." "I'm a pretty friendly and sociable dude, but I have genuine disdain for the way Americans will just walk up to you and start a conversation out of the blue. I'm good with small talk and meeting new people, but I couldn't walk two blocks in the US without getting pulled into some kind of interaction. After a dozen conversations, it gets kinda tiring. The worst is when people use you as their captive audience while you're pumping gas or waiting in line. Political freaks are especially fond of this." "I don't know if it's the culture, but people using personal freedom as a reason to ignore social responsibility, e.g., refusing to mask up when they are sick with COVID-19." "Expensive healthcare for life-threatening conditions and insurance companies running loops around why they shouldn't pay your bill, even though they take money out of your check every fuckin' month. And if you're not full-time or work as a contractor, freelancer, or gig fucking luck paying $357 a month for the lowest tier of healthcare insurance. I spent more on health insurance when I was part-time and had to decide between health and car insurance. I ended up going with health, and got into a car accident that I had to pay out-of-pocket for. Then I switched to car insurance and then sprained my ankle, which I also had to pay out of pocket for, in the same fucking year." "Treating political parties like sports teams." "The two-party system." "The 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' mentality and the entire culture around work while we all work our asses off for people who don't work." "Materialism and the constant advertisements. Buy, buy, buy more crap that really will not make you much happier." "(Many) Universities are associated with athletic programs before academics." "Car dependence. More specifically, designing car-dependent cities, then gaslighting the next generation into thinking car dependence is their choice. We can still have cars. We can still not charge out the ass for gasoline. But we can also create transportation networks that don't punish you for being blind, a child, or broke." "Performative Christianity." "The adulation of billionaires who treat common people like garbage." "The assumption that a tip is required and starts at 18% now." "The obsession with oversized trucks." "Nothing other than complete domination of an industry is seen as success. God forbid a company is run to have reasonable profits for the sake of filling a need in a community and providing for its workers and owners. It must extract every cent possible for maximum profits at all times." "The obsession with 'hustle culture.' Sometimes rest is just rest, not failure." "Teachers are supposed to be the most respected profession in a functioning society, alongside doctors and the people who keep us safe. It is unreal to me how flippant we are towards the people who spend more time with children than parents." "Affordable health insurance being tied to employment." "The idea that parents are no longer responsible for their kids after they turn 18, and that anything but moving out as soon as you can is being a loser." "As a non-American, the obsession with guns while kids are constantly getting killed by guns in schools." "That minimum wage is not tied to the cost of living. I mean, WTF?" "Pharmaceutical ads." "How uptight everyone is about nudity. I have been around the world, and Americans just have this thing that nudity is bad." "The whole emphasis on 'independence' and 'self-reliance', to the point where people who need/want help are shamed." "Using AI in place of imagination and knowledge. There's actually a new study showing that people who relied on AI to write essays had lower brain activity than people who didn't. Literally less intelligent for doing it." "The blending (especially recently) of politics and religion, and enforcing your religious beliefs on others via policy. It's fine to not get an abortion or be against it if your religious beliefs dictate it, but it's not okay to be against it and remove it as a choice for others. Or, in a less 'controversial' topic: I can't buy hard liquor on a Sunday in my state from a liquor store because it's 'God's Day,' but I can sit down at the bar next door and take shot after shot. If you don't want to drink/buy alcohol on Sundays, don't. It's not up to you to determine if others do." And: "Misguided patriotism and supporting destructive policies that go against everything the country was founded on. Proud ignorance kind of goes hand-in-hand with the aforementioned, but it's another problem as well. The belief in exceptionalism — that there's no way any other country or idea could be better than we are, so there's no need to continue to improve. Denial of hard truths. This effort to hide our past because it makes people uncomfortable. Of course it does. That's what makes us great — to LEARN from it, not hide it. No one is supposed to feel good about slavery. It was very bad. We fought a damn war over it and killed each other in the hundreds of thousands. It should be damn well remembered." What's an aspect of American culture that you find annoying or frustrating? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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First Post
04-07-2025
- Business
- First Post
7 ways Trump's Big Beautiful Bill will impact non-Americans
Framed as a bill to restore American strength, reduce inflation, and fund US priorities, Trump's new legislative proposal also carries significant consequences for the rest of the world, particularly non-Americans read more Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La, surrounded by Republican members of Congress, signs US President Donald Trump's signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, July 3, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington, DC, US. File Image/AP US President Donald Trump's newly passed legislative package, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, marks one of the most sweeping overhauls of America's tax, trade, and immigration systems in recent times. While the bill is pitched as a way to 'restore American strength' and redirect national spending to domestic priorities, its global consequences are wide-ranging, particularly for non-Americans across the world. Here are 7 key ways the bill is expected to shape lives and economies outside the United States: STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 1. Remittance tax to hit foreign households The bill imposes a 1% tax on cash remittances sent from the US to other countries. This will affect millions of families in major remittance-dependent economies like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, potentially reducing their annual income by billions of dollars. The tax does not apply to wire or bank-based transfers. 2. Withholding uncertainty for foreign investors While the bill does not impose new withholding taxes on foreign investors, it includes broad corporate tax changes that could affect foreign-owned US assets. Global banks, pension funds, and sovereign wealth entities are bracing for potential regulatory changes that could erode returns on US-linked investments. 3. Trade tensions may escalate The repeal of the 'de minimis' exemption means that small shipments from foreign retailers into the US, previously untaxed if valued under $800, will now be subject to tariffs. This could disproportionately hit exporters in China, the EU, and Latin America, possibly sparking retaliatory trade measures. 4. Climate commitments rolled back The bill rolls back key clean energy tax credits established under the Inflation Reduction Act, including subsidies for electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind energy projects. This may stall momentum in global green supply chains, particularly among US-EU climate partnerships and Asia-based component suppliers. 5. Tighter US immigration access STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The legislation ramps up funding for ICE and Border Patrol and introduces a minimum $100 fee on asylum applications. Although lower than earlier proposals, the new cost barriers could impact international students, temporary workers, and refugees, making the path to the US more expensive and bureaucratic. 6. Ripple effects in global markets From taxes on remittances to regulatory changes in energy and trade, the bill could cause a shift in global investment strategy, increased dollar volatility, and a realignment of financial exposure away from the US by emerging economies. 7. Concerns over US global commitments While the bill does not explicitly cut foreign aid, critics warn that its massive domestic spending increases — including over $170 billion for immigration enforcement — could lead to future reductions in US contributions to global health, development, and humanitarian programs. President Trump's 'big beautiful' promise is already reshaping the US economy, and its effects will be felt far beyond American borders. From higher remittance costs and tighter visa controls to new barriers for global trade and climate cooperation, the bill signals a sharp turn inward, with real consequences for the rest of the world. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
New Straits Times
29-06-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
MONEY THOUGHTS: Of squeezes and substitutions
CAN you sense the snowballing righteous indignation of regular people at the arrogance and disrespect shown to them by political leaders — far and near? Globally, Donald Trump's tariffs on the whole world have angered entire continents, even as some cautious national leaders are taking a placatory stance toward him. Note: Even disregarding trade volumes for the moment, the sizable dip in the number of foreign students enrolling in American universities, and the cratering of tourist visits Stateside both bear testimony to one unsurprising truth: If you don't want me, I have options! While not true under monopolistic or monopsonistic circumstances, it is true most of the time. (In a monopoly, there is only one seller or provider of a good or service; so, a monopolistic vendor can raise prices to the roof. Conversely, in a monopsony, there is only one buyer, again, of a good or service; therefore, a monopsonistic buyer can — and almost always will — slam prices to the floor on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.) Thankfully, we — people and countries — have choices. So, while Trump considers the United States of America the economic centre of Earth, billions of people are waking up to the truth that 95.8 per cent of humanity lives outside America, and about 73 per cent of global GDP (gross domestic product) is generated within the other 192 member countries of the United Nations (and the two permanent observers, the Vatican and beleaguered Palestine). In most buy-and-sell transactions worldwide, the high-handed arrogance of entitled monopolists and monopsonists cannot gain traction because of one word: CHOICE. CHOICE AND SUBSTITUTION Fused onto the word "choice" like a semantic Siamese twin is the robust economic concept of "substitution", which applies to current American economic animosity toward most other countries, and also to the growing hordes of frustrated Malaysian consumers and business owners. People have choices when substitutions abound. You exercise this proactive power each time you dine out and scan menu items. If you see two meal options, which appeal equally to your growling stomach, you are likely to select the cheaper option. When extending the selection of options made from among several (or, better yet, many) economic choices, we humans usually revert to the common sense behaviour of rejecting those who reject us and instead seeking out those who are warm, friendly and accepting. For an extreme recent example, consider the sheer idiocy of the Trump administration barring eager, supersmart non-Americans from entering Harvard University. China's immediate (and massively logical) response was to welcome those brainiacs with open arms. Every country's future wealth is more dependent upon the scientific, technological and business acumen of a minority of talented people — regardless of where they were born — than upon the masses who believe mere birthright dubiously grants them some form of superiority. I suspect if America continues down this path of rejecting those who come from outside its shores, in less than a decade, other countries, led by wiser leaders, will grow at its expense. However, the proven self-correcting mechanisms in the American system of governance will probably permit the pendulum to swing back toward sanity in a few years. So, the advantage those of us who invest globally have is a vast range of choices for the allocation of our hard-earned, hard-won and hard-retained capital. Within our, ideally, globally diversified portfolios we should observe and think before acting. ECONOMIC RE-ENGINEERING Toward that end, the idea of substitution is readily understood, both within the SIPs (or savings and investment portfolios) we build lifelong wealth with, and within the narrow parameters of analysing the impact hiking a small country like Malaysia's sales and service (SST) rates can have. In case you missed it, there was an announcement that the Malaysian government will rake in an additional RM10 billion from its most recent hikes in certain SST rates. Time will tell if that durian runtuh -type harvest for government coffers materialises. You see, on the surface, having a competent, clean government that collects more tax revenue and which channels it toward enhancing the country's healthcare and education systems is laudable. However, that targeted extra RM10 billion flowing to the government is RM10 billion flowing OUT from the collective pockets of all Malaysians. It's been reiterated that 85 per cent of Malaysians won't be hurt too much, while the highest earning 15 per cent of Malaysian households shouldn't begrudge this economic re-engineering. Yet, in truth, dissatisfaction is rising like a king tide across all slices of the so-called privileged T15 — the 15 per cent of top-earning Malaysians. And the source of that dissatisfaction — increased taxes — will morph consumption habits across all socio-economic layers of this country. When we-the-people feel that disengaged authorities are squeezing us, we will respond rationally, logically, and decisively — to protect the economic well-being of those who matter most to us: our immediate families. Similarly, but on a larger scale, countries other than the US, especially across Asia, will evolve and grow new supply chains that exclude and sideline offensive rogue nations intent on rejecting or hurting them. Consider that as you contemplate your key investment choices over the next three-and-a-half years. © 2025 Rajen Devadason
Boston Globe
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
As Trump administration punishes Ivy League, universities in the heartland stand to benefit
Advertisement 'A lot of higher education is in a political food fight because they don't like the flavor of the current leadership,' said Todd Graves, chair of the Mizzou board. 'We keep our head down, we educate the students, we conduct the research, and we don't try to tell people how to live their lives. We try to make people's lives better.' A new University of Missouri Research Reactor employee, Christopher Verbsky, right, operated a mock-up hot cell while two other MURR employees watched. Each of MURR's hot cells costs approximately $2 million. Bailey Stover for The Boston Globe As the Trump administration starves Ivy League schools received $473.1 million in new from an average of $425.9 million, according to an analysis by STAT prepared for this report. Advertisement In a few more years, as SEC school leaders see it, wealth and talent will be more broadly distributed at public universities around the country, and less concentrated in the coastal elite institutions. 'American higher education is going to thrive,' said Jay Greene, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the group behind The Trump administration is trying to force cultural changes in what it sees as the elite schools' At seven of the eight Ivy League schools, 20 to 25 percent of students are from foreign countries, according to US Department of Education data. At Columbia University, the figure is nearly 40 percent. The SEC colleges, by contrast, have some of the lowest percentages of international students in the United States. At most of these schools, non-Americans make up 5 percent or less of the student body. Advertisement At most SEC schools, at least 70 percent of the student body is white, though some schools have relatively large proportions of Black students. Just 33 percent of Harvard's students are white. Large public universities in the South, where Gaza protests were generally more muted last year than at Harvard or Columbia, have not seen the same kind of targeted attacks. Their science labs have lost money in President Trump's massive cuts to research funding, but their ambition to continue growth already underway in the last decade is fierce. @font-face { font-family: BentonSansCond-Regular; src: url(" format('woff2'), url(" format('woff'); font-weight: 600; font-style: normal; } @font-face { font-family: BentonSansCond-Bold; src: url(" format('woff2'), url(" format('woff'); font-weight: 600; font-style: normal; } .dnddicesarea__container{ display: block; max-width: 750px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; background-color: #fff; } .cvsillotitle { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Bold", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.28; text-align: center; color: #000; padding: 0; margin-top: 25px; } .cvsillotextblurb { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Regular", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.28; text-align: center; color: #000; padding: 10px 10px 10px 0; letter-spacing: .5px; } .cvsillotextblurb span { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Bold", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.28; text-align: center; color: #000; padding: 0 0 10px 0; letter-spacing: .5px; } /* Dek styles */ .cvsillo-well__dek { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Bold", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-weight: 200; text-align: center; color: #000; padding-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 1.2; } .cvsillo-well__dekblurb { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Regular", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.2; text-align: center; color: #000; margin-bottom: 10px; letter-spacing: .5px; padding: 0 0 0px 0; } /* Link box styles */ .cvsillolinks { font-family: "BentonSansCond-Regular", "Impact", "Arial Narrow", "Helvetica", sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: .8px; background-color: #fff; color: #333; cursor: pointer; padding: 5px; border: none; text-align: left; transition: 0.4s; margin: 0px 0; width: 100%; } .abovecredline { width: 100%; display: block; border-bottom: 0px solid rgba(000, 000, 000,1); height: 1px; background: #56849b; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 4px; text-align: center; } /* Flex layout for responsive card grid */ .cvsillo-well__top-links { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between; gap: 20px; margin-top: 0px; } .cvsillo-well__related-container { flex: 1 1 100%; max-width: 100%; } /* Medium screens: 2 per row */ @media (min-width: 600px) { .cvsillo-well__related-container { flex: 1 1 calc(50% - 10px); max-width: calc(50% - 10px); } } /* Large screens: 3 per row (optional) */ @media (min-width: 900px) { .cvsillo-well__related-container { flex: 1 1 calc(50% - 10px); max-width: calc(50% - 10px); } } .cvsillo-well__related-container { position: relative; } /* Show vertical divider between 2-per-row items, EXCEPT the last item */ .cvsillo-well__related-container:not(:nth-child(4n)):not(:last-child)::after { content: ""; position: absolute; top: 10%; right: -10px; width: 1px; height: 80%; background-color: #ccc; } /* Remove all dividers on desktop (4-per-row or more) */ @media (min-width: 1000px) { .cvsillo-well__related-container::after { content: none; } } @media (max-width: 599px) { .cvsillo-well__related-container:nth-child(2) { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; padding-top: 10px; margin-top: 10px; } } Total terminated NIH grants at Harvard vs. Vanderbilt The two universities have seen vastly different reductions from the federal funding cuts from the National Institutes of Health, as of May 27. Harvard $2,163,911,123 Vanderbilt $23,947,335 SOURCE: Scott Delaney and Noam Ross; Note: Some grant terminations may not be included in the total; RYAN HUDDLE/GLOBE STAFF The predominance of the Ivy League will hardly disappear overnight, of course; the schools have For now, though, public universities in red states stand to gain from East Coast campuses' losses. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, made the administration's intentions plain Sixty to 65 percent of NIH funding goes to about 20 universities, he said: 'The system is set up almost to guarantee that that [concentration] happens,' Bhattacharya said. Advertisement NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya said research funding should be more 'geographically dispersed. Win McNamee/Getty 'The way to combat scientific groupthink is by empowering researchers across the country, no matter where they are, to have a great opportunity if they have great ideas for NIH funding,' Bhattacharya said, referring to a common critique from the right that scientific research suffers from insularity. Even before Trump took office, the SEC schools had been making major gains in securing research dollars and recruiting students from around the country. Applications to SEC universities have soared by almost 300 percent since 2001, while elite colleges in New England have seen a smaller 188 percent increase in interest, said Kyle Whitman, chief data scientist of the Carnegie Classifications, a system used to organize universities based on research levels and degrees offered, managed by the American Council on Education. Fewer and fewer students from New England have enrolled in the region's most selective universities, while the SEC has successfully recruited more Northern students. 'There is a broader cultural shift to the Sun Belt right now,' he said. 'There's an attitude there that growth is good.' The SEC schools also offer attractive selling points that are hard to find in New England: booming Greek life, massive sporting events, lower sticker prices, and milder winters. The columns at the University of Missouri's David R. Francis Quadrangle in Columbia. Bailey Stover for The Boston Globe 'It's fun being a student at a university like ours,' said Mun Choi, chancellor of the University of Missouri and president of the Missouri system. 'Not only do you have a beautiful campus, excellent faculty members, and a thriving downtown . . . we're an SEC school where football weekends or major basketball games — literally it feels like electricity in there.' The SEC schools' big-time athletic programs help students and faculty members see 'themselves on this greater common mission,' said Ross Zafonte, who recently joined Mizzou's medical school administration after many years at Harvard University and Mass General Brigham, where he served as president of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. Advertisement 'On Fridays here, it sounds corny, people wear Mizzou Tiger stuff,' Zafonte said. The Ivy League schools, the Trump administration and its allies argue, have fraught campus cultures because they've become obsessed with identity politics, a byproduct of DEI initiatives, and because they enroll too many Graduates passed the John Harvard Statue during Harvard University's 374th Commencement in Cambridge on May 29. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff When questioned about Harvard enrolling the 'best and brightest from around the world,' Trump said it had to offer 'Then you see the same people picketing and screaming at the United States, and . . . they're antisemitic,' he said. 'We don't want troublemakers here.' Some students and faculty members, said Greene, of the Heritage Foundation, may want to avoid the political drama consuming campuses like Harvard, and choose instead to go to 'universities in red states,' where, he argues, students can receive a great education in a less politicized environment. In this period of retrenchment for the elites, some SEC campuses are developing aggressive research growth plans. At the University of Texas Austin, federal funding cuts have affected $47 million in research funding for about 60 grants, or just 1 percent of its research enterprise, which spends about $1 billion annually on roughly 4,600 projects. Moving forward, UT Austin plans to expand its Texas Institute for Electronics, a semiconductor research and development facility that has received substantial government investment in the past, according to the university's 2025 strategic plan for research. Advertisement As applications from out-of-state students continue to soar, 'we see the caliber of those students exponentially increasing,' said Miguel Wasielewski, vice provost of admissions at UT Austin. And though the University of Tennessee system is wading through almost $38 million in federal funding cuts, its leaders expect research operations to continue to grow, said John Zomchick, provost and senior vice chancellor. The University of Missouri Research Reactor emits Cherenkov radiation, a blue glow. Bailey Stover for The Boston Globe In the last five years, the school's research expenditures increased by 21 percent to $384 million in fiscal 2024, and the university plans to hire more faculty to oversee research in engineering, artificial intelligence, and precision health, he said. Research expenditures at Harvard, by contrast, increased 13 percent to $1.02 billion from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2024. In May, the University of Tennessee signed an agreement with Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates a government office that was initially part of the Manhattan Project. A spokesperson said the deal will create 'new partnership-powered R&D initiatives that will enhance our nation's national and nuclear security.' Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory nearby is also partnering with the Department of Energy in plans to add hundreds of PhD students in its data, energy, and genome science programs. 'There's enormous optimism here,' said Zomchick. 'Are there some things that are happening that we will have to adapt to? Absolutely. But our intention is to hold the course, modify the course, as necessary.' The University of Alabama in 2018 was named among the universities with the highest levels of research activity in the country, a long-held goal of the Tuscaloosa campus. President Trump was applauded by graduates after his commencement speech at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on May 1. HAIYUN JIANG/NYT The institution's big commencement speaker this spring was Trump himself. 'It is clear to see the next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson,' Trump told a cheering crowd of thousands. 'It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide.' As a pall descended on major East Coast research schools this spring, Mizzou's president began pitching the research reactor to the Trump administration. In a March visit to Mar-a-Lago, Mun Choi was the only university president in the room, he said. Choi has calibrated his sales talk to resonate with a White House that has deep anxieties about global competition. If the university does not get the funding to build the new reactor, Choi said in his wood-paneled office overlooking Francis Quadrangle's six limestone columns, there is 'no other supplier in the Western Hemisphere.' 'We do not want to be in a situation where we are reliant on other countries' generosity to be able to share the radioisotopes with American patients,' Choi said. Mizzou, like other universities with burgeoning research enterprises, is working hard to diversify its research funding sources beyond the NIH to rely more on other sources, including the state and the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Transportation. 'Places like Harvard and Columbia and Yale, they are so heavily leveraged with NIH, which was a good thing for two generations,' said Richard J. Barohn, executive vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of Mizzou's School of Medicine. 'Now, maybe it's not such a good thing. . . . I think we're going to get faculty that are going to move here.' And in Choi, the university has a steady leader, several faculty and administrators said. His life story embodies the American dream, and he understands the political nature of the job. An immigrant from South Korea, Choi arrived in Akron, Ohio, as a 9-year-old and learned about resilience from watching his parents, who grew up during the Korean War, build a business making Taekwondo uniforms. University staffers and faculty members marvel at Choi's talent for remembering the name of everyone he meets. One evening, he worked the room at an alumni event held at an outdoor bar with live music, shaking hands, and clinking a pint of beer with guests. He's also a regular attendee at athletic events and games, cheering on the Tigers in an iridescent yellow jacket, he said. Mun Choi, chancellor of the University of Missouri and president of the Missouri system, said, 'Our objective is to create an epicenter of nuclear medicine right here in mid-Missouri." Bailey Stover for The Boston Globe His tenure at Missouri has not been without drama. Before Choi began the job in 2017, the Chronicle of Higher Education put the task ahead in stark terms: 'The University of Missouri system is looking for a new president, but given the system's recent upheaval a better title for the new leader might well be 'miracle worker.' ' The university, about two hours west of Ferguson, Mo., where police shot and killed Michael Brown in 2014, had been rocked by protests about race and Black students' experiences on campus in 2015. Two senior leaders resigned because of the conflagration, and school officials blamed subsequent declines in enrollment, donations, and state funding on the protests. While overall enrollment has improved since, Black enrollment continues to lag. Asked about what the university is doing to recruit students of color to recoup those losses, Choi answered carefully. 'It's very important for us to recruit very broadly, and to bring the very best students to our university so that they can benefit from what we offer,' Choi said. Race relations on campus made headlines again in 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd when student protesters called for the removal of a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson because he was a slave owner. The university did not concede. There have been pro-Palestinian protests on Mizzou's campus over the Israel-Hamas war, though they were reportedly peaceful and did not attract the media frenzy many Northeast campuses experienced. Choi also forbade the student group Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine from marching in the annual Homecoming Parade last fall, prompting criticism from students who accused university leaders of discrimination. 'I was concerned about the safety concerns, and also I didn't feel that what they planned to do, which I believe was to protest the war, was appropriate for the Homecoming Parade,' Choi said. It's that same pragmatism that brought him to Mar-a-Lago, at the invitation of an alum who had a meeting scheduled with Republican Representative Jason Smith to discuss tax issues. Choi said he spoke with lawmakers about his idea to offer tax credits for radioisotope production. The lawmakers didn't bite, but Choi remains optimistic about seeking federal support. The Missouri General Assembly earlier this month approved a request from the governor to provide $50 million in funding for the project. The university in April announced a $10 million agreement with a consortium that includes Hyundai Engineering America, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Hyundai Engineering Co., and MPR Associates for the design and licensing of the new reactor. Mizzou has also successfully brought at least one paused project back online by working with the Department of Agriculture and congressional leaders, Choi said. Asked about the East Coast schools' plea for solidarity from campuses across the nation in their fight against what they see as dangerous government overreach that threatens academic freedom, Choi paused. Joint statements against the onslaught have crossed his desk, but he and his team made a 'conscious decision not to sign.' 'My words and my action can have dramatic impact to this institution, and I have to be very careful in what I say and what I do to ensure that those words and my actions do not negatively impact this university,' Choi said. 'I've been very mindful of that responsibility.' J. Emory Parker, data editor for the Globe's sister publication STAT, contributed to this report. Hilary Burns can be reached at Follow Us Subscribe Now My Account Contact More © 2025 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
Daily Maverick
27-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair: US's economic outlook is decidedly murky
When I worked in fund management in the City of London in the 1990s, my team dreaded seeing one of our largest company investments featured on the cover of Business Week. Too often, it heralded bad news. So we formulated a curse: 'Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first put on the front cover of Business Week.' This sentiment derives from the Latin warning, 'Those whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason.' It has been adapted many times since … including by James Bond! The variant that informed our 1990s curse came from Cyril Connolly, the journalist and critic: 'Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.' Fast-forward to 2024 and it seems as if The Economist has usurped Businessweek. On 19 October 2024, the British weekly ran a front cover story lauding the United States as 'The Envy of the World'. Eight months later, at least to many non-Americans, America is anything but. Result? Many foreigners are selling their American financial assets. Outsiders increasingly pity – not envy – the US because of the domestic political quagmire in which it is visibly trapped; its foreign policy challenges are no less daunting. But I will leave the reader to decide for themselves whether they agree with these assessments. For my part, I focus mostly on the economics. Yet here too there are multiple signs of malaise. And they are not just cyclical – GDP growth was actually negative last quarter – but structural. Many titans of US finance fear this malaise could yet have world-altering consequences. The subtext of The Economist cover story was to laud what especially financial markets had dubbed 'US exceptionalism': high economic growth, solid productivity gains, a generally strong dollar and, above all, a stock market that had consistently outperformed all-comers. The result of the latter was that the US – with but 4.2% of the world's population – accounted for 67% of end 2024's MSCI All World Equity Index. The idea of American exceptionalism is far from new. It dates back to a 1630 speech from John Winthrop. Quoting the Bible – 'You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden' – this Bostonian Puritan inaugurated a theme that has been oft repeated in US politics: one of American uniqueness, that, by being 'above', America would be a 'beacon of hope' for the world. US politicians have repeatedly echoed this notion, most famously John F Kennedy in 1961: 'We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill – the eyes of all people are upon us.' In October 2024, The Economist was suggesting that this US beacon of hope had become 'The Envy of the Financial World'. How different everything seems now! Part of the challenge faced by those of us in finance daring to suggest that 'something is amiss with the US' is that we face a form of colour blindness: dollar blindness. Most financial analysts and investors – plus the talking heads of CNBC and Bloomberg – speak Dollar as their first language … and are rarely fluent in any other currency. And because they nearly always speak in dollars, they cannot appreciate how much the US dollar 'ain't what it used to be'. Furthermore, by having strong equity biases, they often have only a vague grasp of the vagaries of bond and currency markets. To most of the Dollar-fluent group, the fact the S&P 500 has hung in there since 18 October 2024 (and Donald Trump's election soon thereafter) means there is no cause for alarm: equities are broadly flat since that article. Even if equities are not one of the vital signs flashing red, an increasing number of foreigners are now divesting their savings from US Treasuries and thereafter the US dollar. (To state the obvious, the currency unit of account for foreigners is not the US dollar.) Over the past eight months, the UST 10-year yield has fallen from 4.08% to 4.28%. More significantly, over the same period, the 30-year – which saw outflows of $11-billion in Q2 25 – has fallen from 4.38% to 4.82%. On top of these bond losses, many foreigners have lost money on the currency cross as the dollar's DXY Index has fallen from 105.5 to 98.0 over the past eight months. (The DXY actually rose to 110 until just before Joe Biden handed over to Trump, but has fallen 11% since that presidential inauguration). Added to these red lights, we must note a recent slew of US macro data – both hard and soft – that is painting a worrying cyclical picture. The IMF forecasts that – after 2024's 2.8% – the US economy will grow a full percentage point less, at 1.8%, in 2025. In 2026, they see yet further deceleration in that growth rate. This slowdown will be before the effects of the tariff war are fully reflected. In addition, there is a growing foreign tourist stayaway now all too evident in flight and hotel occupancies. Finally, the loss of the growth drivers from immigration – which has driven all GDP growth post-Covid! – are also hard to estimate. Meanwhile, the 'all-important' US consumer is showing signs of stumbling: 'all important' as consumption accounts for nearly 70% of US GDP. The Consumer Confidence Index dropped 5.4 points in June to 93.0 – significantly below the 98.4 consensus estimates. May's retail sales were down 0.9% month on month. May auto sales decelerated from March and April. Restaurant sales fell -1% in May after a gain of +2.5% in April. Housing data is cooling: May housing starts were down 9.3% to a five-year low and property prices are falling in real terms. But, in the grander scheme of things, these monthly macro readings are but peripheral readings, cyclical more than structural. What matters above all – more precisely, underneath it all – is what lies beneath in the foundations of the US economy. For buried there is a ticking time bomb: the US Federal budget deficit. And Moody's, by recently stripping the US of its last AAA sovereign debt rating, has alerted investors to the increased volume of that ticking. For the first eight months of FY 2025 to end May, this deficit rose $1.37-trillion, up 13.5% on 2024's equivalent. After a $1.8-trillion deficit in FY 2024, a higher total for FY 2025 now looks possible … and this despite the cost-cutting efforts of the now-departed Elon Musk and his left-behind Doge team. Trump's flagship budget – 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (OBBBA) – is criss-crossing multiple minefields in Congress. The Senate and House Republican versions –still not reconciled to each other – are underpinned by heroic assumptions, especially on the revenue side. Both also rely upon a GDP growth rate rising over 4%, an eventuality few neutral forecasters find credible. The Tax Foundation forecasts the OBBBA will raise GDP by just 1.1%. Yale University even sees growth declining 3%! The dysfunctionality of Congress is rooted in a seemingly irreconcilable desire for Republicans to cut taxes and for Democrats to raise expenditure. (The Republicans always want to raise defence expenditure too.) If what results in the actual numbers in coming years is a mish-mash of lower revenues (suggesting tax cuts happened), yet similar or even higher expenditure (implying Republican cost cutting will have been mostly thwarted), then it is a mathematical inevitability that the primary deficit (which excludes interest on debt) of the Federal Budget will rise. Yet there is wishful thinking on the part of most Republicans that the primary deficit can, looking forward over the next decade, be contained at around $500-billion annually. However, if any overall deficit results, and not just a primary one, this means the overall total federal debt ($37-trillion end June 2025; forecast $37.5-trillion to end fiscal 2025) must rise too. So to be clear, a primary deficit of '$500-billion' in 2025 (Ahem! It is heading for $1-trillion plus!) plus this year's debt interest bill of $800-billion would result in an overall deficit of $1.3-trillion … which would then be added to total outstanding federal debt. The following year, interest on a larger federal debt (now forecast to be $37.5-trillion federal debt by the end of September 2025) would then be payable. Not that the primary deficit can in any way be ignored, it is the interest bill on government debt that risks weighing down US government finances the most. Why? Because if Congress cannot run primary budget surpluses, influencing that interest bill is essentially beyond their reach. And, to quote the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (4 June 2025): 'If interest rates were to remain elevated at current levels – with 10-year Treasuries at 4.5% – then interest costs would climb further to $2.1-trillion (5.1% of GDP) in 2034 or $2.2-trillion (5.2% of GDP) under a permanent OBBBA scenario.' Uncontrollable interest payments could yet become the tail that wags the federal deficit dog. One must add to this fiscal fiasco the cocktail of uncertainty now facing the US's longer-term economic growth prospects: higher tariffs, evidence of foreigners boycotting US goods (think Boeing, as recently as 2017 the US's top industrial exporter), macro policy uncertainty causing investments to be postponed, and increasing cuts to university-based R&D as part of a wider attack on academia, the legal profession, the fourth estate and above all the Constitution itself. Far from being 'the Light on the Hill', the US's economic outlook is decidedly murky. Is it any wonder that foreign investors are shying away from the US bond market, precipitating rises in longer-term interest rates (so adding to the financing burden of federal debt) and thereafter causing the US dollar to sink? The British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee wrote that 'Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder'. And the mounting travails faced by today's US have mostly been self-inflicted. What should we expect next? Georges Danton, the orator who became the minister of justice in 1792 three years after the French Revolution and president of the National Convention a year later, was credited (among others) to have predicted: 'Like Saturn, the revolution devours its children.' Madame la Guillotine made Danton's acquaintance in 1794. Will Donald Trump start turning on his own? Was Elon Musk his amuse-bouche? Will Tulsi Gabbard be the next course? How will Trump serve the Maga wing of the Republican Party as they decry his 'foreign adventures'? Or Thomas Massie? And will Baked Alaska – Lisa Murkowski – yet be Trump's dessert? 'The New Colossus' is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus written in 1883 to raise money for the construction of the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. It is engraved on a bronze plaque inside that pedestal. Its most famous lines are: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! This welcome does not apply in 2025. What then does the future hold for an America that is no longer a Statue of Liberty lifting a lamp beside a golden door? In the first version of the film The Planet of the Apes, the closing image is of a partially buried Statue of Liberty rising rusted from a deserted beach. The film's lead, played by Charlton Heston, realises the gruelling odyssey he has just survived has all been in vain: he was always back on Planet Earth. This powerful scene surely echoed Shelley's 1818 sonnet, Ozymandias: Poetry for thought. DM
