Maxwell School News and Commentary

"We're looking at politics here so he [President Trump] may be looking for some gigantic sign that he has won, that he as somehow brought the Chinese to the table in a way that no one else could," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. "And I think that's where the danger lies because that's what the Chinese are not going to want to give him."

"This is really going to hurt American businesses who use Mexico to reduce their costs and stay competitive," Mary Lovely, professor of economics, told Bloomberg after President Trump announced that all products from Mexico will be hit with 25 percent tariffs.

"It’ll hit the pocketbooks of the working class hard," Professor Mary Lovely said about Trump's recent trade-war threat to increase tariffs.

According to Mary Lovely, professor of economics, China's leadership is "looking for friends everywhere." And with France being an important player in Europe, "they're also looking to continue to diversify their portfolio in terms of where they do business and how they do business," she says.

Democratic tax proposals are simply a "stealth attack" on the preferential rate for capital gains, says Christopher Faricy, associate professor of political science.

Chris Faricy, associate professor of political science, says  "You can tell people you gave them a tax cut, but if they don’t believe it and their refunds are smaller, it’s a hard sell politically," in an article for Bloomberg. 

Mary Lovely, professor of economics, notes that some Chinese goods have no alternative sourcing, and even when workarounds from other countries are available, they are often not perfect substitutes and lead to higher pricing for U.S. companies.

"It does look like it was not a terribly sophisticated campaign or attack," says Professor Emeritus William Banks about high profile democrats, public figures, and the CNN newsroom in New York receiving apparent explosive devices. "On the other hand, the packages did manage to get through the postal system without getting detected, so it is certainly a worrisome case."