The ugly truth about Trump’s ‘beautiful tarif...

Building data centres and running the US government have something in common: they cost a lot of money. Tech companies are borrowing heavily to fund the AI build out, just as Washington is borrowing vast sums to fund the US government, and those two borrowing binges may be on a c ...  Show more

In recent months, part of the chip market has been going bananas. Prices for memory chips – which AI data centres use in droves – have rocketed, as US tech companies lock in massive orders. That’s bad news for consumers facing more expensive electronic devices. But what are the b ...  Show more

US President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy is reshaping trade, diplomacy, and the American economy. The levies have sparked turmoil in financial markets, but are already bringing in billions of dollars in revenue for the US Treasury. So far, the global economy has held up better ...  Show more

Trump is returning to office with many of the same policies that characterised his last term. And for economists, none looms larger than the prospect of significant new tariffs. But are tariffs really as destructive as feared? After all, the Biden administration maintained mos ...

What are tariffs good for?For years, mainstream economists have basically said: tariffs are not good. They are an import tax paid by consumers, they've said, and they discourage free trade, and we want more! Because free trade has broadly led to more global economic growth.But gl ...  Show more

This week the US imposed new tariffs on most of the world. The FT’s US national editor Ed Luce joins us to analyze why they are baffling economists and worrying markets. Ed’s take? The US is taking itself out of the globalised economic system it built, and the consequences could ...  Show more