Free Republic

Hyundai plans to invest $20 billion to bring manufacturing operations to the U.S., a White House official confirmed to FOX Business. Part of the investment from the South Korean automaker will go toward building a next-generation steel plant. The materials will be used in two of its U.S. plants and will employ 1,500 people. The rest of the money will be earmarked to expand manufacturing in the U.S. The automaker is the latest among a growing number of companies announcing plans to increase investment in the U.S. under the Trump administration, which has been using tariffs to encourage companies to...

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio on Wednesday warned that a significant supply-demand problem regarding U.S. debt could have a profoundly disruptive impact on the global economy. It is the latest in a series of stark warnings about America’s mounting debt from the U.S. hedge fund billionaire, with the country’s national debt currently standing at more than $36.2 trillion. “The first thing is the debt issue, we have a very severe supply-demand problem,” Dalio told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore. ”[The U.S. has] to sell a quantity of debt that the world is not going to want to buy.”...

Nvidia, the world’s undisputed leader in chipmaking, says it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years on its U.S.-based manufacturing operations — part of the manufacturing renaissance under President Donald J. Trump as he solidifies the U.S. as the global leader in artificial intelligence.“Having the support of an administration who cares about the success of this industry and not allowing energy to be an obstacle is a phenomenal result for AI in the U.S.,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.Here’s what they’re saying:Axios: “It’s another win for President Trump’s push to increase U.S. manufacturing, with a...

‘Negativity won’t win a trade war,’ Carney says in shot at Poilievre CBC News Special | Carney kicks off Liberal campaign, Canadians set to vote April 28 ..... The Latest Voters will go to the polls on April 28. Carney says he will cut taxes for middle-class Canadians. Speaking earlier in Quebec, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he will stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump and his threats of annexation. We’re expecting to hear from all the other major national party leaders today as well. Polling suggests a tight race between the Liberals and Tories as the campaign gets...

British engineering giant Rolls-Royce is reportedly preparing to increase manufacturing production in the United States to avoid tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. London’s Daily Telegraph reported that Rolls-Royce is currently drafting contingency plans to avoid the impact of trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. The plans are said to include ramping up production in America and hiring more workers in the United States. According to the report, the aerospace and defence company is considering shifting production from countries impacted by the trade war, such as China, Canada, and Mexico, where it currently has around 6,000 workers.

German luxury auto manufacturer Audi said it is considering moving car production to the United States to avoid tariffs from the Trump administration. Volkswagen’s subsidiary Audi brand said this week that it is examining various long-term strategies, including potentially shifting production to America, to deal with President Donald Trump’s restrictions on foreign imports. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said that the company is “currently assessing various scenarios for additional localization in North America – among other things, to be closer to the needs of local customers and to make ourselves more resilient to global economic uncertainties.”

President Donald Trump is urging the Fed to cut interest rates to offset the inflation that will be caused by tariffs. “The Fed would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as U.S.Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy,” Trump wrote. “Do the right thing. April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!!” Reducing interest rates will NOT offset inflation caused by tariffs because the two variables are not directly related. Tariffs increase costs due to supply, while interest rates influence demand. When tariffs are imposed, the cost of imported goods rise, increasing prices for consumers and businesses. This...

The Federal Reserve held interbank lending rates steady on Wednesday at a range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent despite some signs that the economy may be heading for a slowdown. The decision to keep rates where they are was in line with market expectations. The CME FedWatch prediction algorithm based on futures contract prices registered Wednesday a 99 percent probability that the Fed would hold rates steady. The Fed has paused rate cuts for the second straight meeting since January. The central bank cut rates three times during the end of 2024 in response to weakening employment data and easing...

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. firms are buying cobalt metal produced in Indonesia by China's Lygend Resources that does not incur the tariffs placed by the Trump administration on imports direct from China, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed extra import tariffs on Chinese goods since taking office in January, as well as placing levies on key trading partner Canada, another key source of cobalt, used in aerospace, for the U.S. Lygend's cobalt metal production in Indonesia pre-dates the latest tariffs, industry sources say, with cobalt produced by the group in the...

"One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada. Now, this was Trudeau — good old Justin. I call him 'Governor Trudeau.' His people were nasty and they weren't telling the truth," the Republican leader told Fox News host Laura Ingraham during an interview. When Ingraham suggested that Trump's policies could benefit the Carney-led Liberal Party's electoral prospects - Canada is to hold federal polls by October - the latter responded that it would be easier to work with the Liberals than the Conservatives, Canada's main opposition party which has consistently led opinion polls. "I don't care. I think...

You see, at first, when someone says, 'Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works – but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries...

An iconic 354-year-old Canadian retailer is going out of business and shutting down all of its stores. And it's pointing the finger at America and the ongoing tariff war. Hudson’s Bay, a retailer and an anchor to dozens of malls across Canada, is preparing for an 'immediate' liquidation after failing to secure enough money to stay afloat. Clearance sales will begin as early as next week at all 80 Hudson’s Bay locations, as well as three Saks Fifth Avenue and 12 Saks Off 5th stores it operates in Canada. Hudson’s Bay blames its collapse on sluggish consumer spending, post-pandemic declines...

The European Union has reacted swiftly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that came into effect Wednesday, retaliating with its own punitive countermeasures that it said were needed to protect consumers and businesses. The White House confirmed the duties — which will affect Canada, Australia, the EU and others — late Tuesday, but said that Trump no longer planned to raise tariffs on metals from Canada to 50%. The EU responded swiftly, saying it would impose counter-tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28.33 billion) worth of U.S. goods starting in April. European Commission President Ursula...

When the U.S. was attacked by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001, Brazil’s president at the time, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, immediately invoked the Rio Treaty – a pillar of the Inter-American system upon which the Organization of American States was founded. It has a simple and important premise: if any member country in the Americas is attacked militarily by an outside force, that constitutes an attack on all member states. Brazil stood firmly by the United States after the 9/11 attacks. But times have changed. President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim is now attempting to remove...

Donald Trump’s tariff policies remain a lightning rod for debate. Democrats are sounding the alarm, warning of dire economic fallout and painting a picture of looming catastrophe. Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor of Newsweek, made one of the strongest, most effective cases yet for former President Donald Trump’s tariffs during the latest episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.” She broke down exactly why these tariffs are necessary, and by the end, she left Bill Maher flustered. Ungar-Sargon’s explanation couldn’t have been clearer: manufacturing jobs and economic nationalism are crucial for the American middle class. When the conversation turned to...

p class="a9d-pre">If you’re looking for an explanation of why the stock market has been stumbling, the financial press has a ready-made answer: blame Trump’s tariffs. The claim is familiar, convenient, and utterly predictable. It also happens to be wrong. Markets don’t move in neat response to political narratives, and the idea that investors suddenly woke up to the perils of trade policy months after Trump was elected is as laughable as it is lazy.If the press had a better explanation, they’d use it—so long as it made President Trump look bad. Instead, they’re dusting off the same script they used...

that, because they drive up prices, which makes manufacturers and consumers very sad. However, I’m not worried (I’ll explain why) and Michael Lind is even less worried (and he does a great job of explaining why ). I won’t rehash all of Trump’s tariff actions here. I’ll just make three points that are why I’m sanguine about what he’s doing: First, Trump’s focus in pushing tariffs isn’t to benefit specific industries at home, although he certainly hopes they will benefit. That’s been the traditional approach to tariffs. Trump, instead, is using tariffs as a non-military cudgel against foreign nations that...

Victor Davis Hanson explains the strategy of using tariffs against Mexico to stop the spread of fentanyl and U.S. money going to cartels. From The Daily Signal's 'Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words' series: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Donald Trump has threatened all sorts of trade sanctions on Mexico at 25% tariff, but why is he doing this? And I think the answer is there's four things that Mexico knows it has been doing to us with impunity, especially under Joe Biden, that are not sustainable. The first, it used to run under NAFTA, 10 to $20 billion trade surplus....

We aren’t fans of the trade war, but blaming Trump (as the media and the Left are doing) ignores one key point: He’s right that other countries impose outrageous tariffs on American exports. Is there a path to reciprocal low or zero rates? We wouldn’t count Trump out. One idea we like would be to start immediately with a zero-zero trade agreement with Argentina, which Javier Milei is reportedly interested in. That would knock our trading partners off their high horse.

Vietnam is reviewing its duties on U.S. goods, including on liquefied natural gas, agriculture and high-tech products, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the U.S. ambassador to the country, a report on the government's website said. The Southeast Asian industrial hub, which is heavily reliant on exports to the United States and has a large trade surplus with Washington, is scrambling to avoid reciprocal tariffs that the Trump administration has threatened globally to reduce America's trade deficit. Chinh said "relevant ministries, sectors and agencies are actively reviewing import tariffs on goods from the United States, encouraging increased imports of key...