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Back in 1987, President Ronald Reagan made a televised speech defending the principles of free trade, and slamming tariffs as a misguided policy that drives up prices and ultimately hurt American businesses, workers, and consumers. Now a Canadian ad campaign aimed at Americans is using that speech to remind Republican voters that Reagans views are still relevant. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars, Reagan said. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. The ad began airing this week on Newsmax and Bloomberg, and will expand to Fox News, Fox Sports, NBC, CBS, CNBC, ESPN, and ABC. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Tuesday during a speech Im a big Ronald Reagan fan . . . Were going to launch a $75 million ad, and were going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country. This work follows a December ad campaign that focused on the negative impact of tariffs on trade. According to a September report from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, the province’s real GDP growth is projected to slow to 0.9% this year and 1.0% next year due to the impact of U.S. tariffs. It comes at an awkward time, as automaker Stellantis announced a change in plans, moving production of its Jeep Compass model from Ontario to Illinois. The federal Canadian government is threatening to sue to company over the decision. This isn’t the first time advertising from the north has been aimed at Americans. In December, the Ontario government ran ads on Fox News and during NFL games to remind U.S. viewers that the Canadian province is America’s third biggest trade partner, and the main export buyer for 17 states. And in July, Quebec ran a series of tourism ads to encourage Americans to keep visiting despite Trump threatening Canadian sovereignty. The new Reagan spot is a soft sell, using Americans’ own words to try and persuade them of a different tack on tariffs. But that gentler, more polite (dare I say Canadian) approach may not last long. Since President Trump started pontificating about a 51st State, Canadians have reacted strongly by boycotting American goods and traveling south significantly less. The “Elbows Up” sentiment drove down U.S. travel in July by more than 30%the seventh consecutive month of declines over 2024and are buying more Canadian-made goods. On Wednesday, Ontario premier Doug Ford blamed President Trump and his tariffs for the Stellantis decision. That guy, President Trump, hes a real piece of work, Ford said. Im sick and tired of rolling over. We need to fight back.”
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration is looking to provide an additional $20 billion in financing for Argentina through a mix of financing from sovereign funds and the private sector.That would come on top of the $20 billion credit swap line that the U.S. Treasury pledged to Argentine President Javier Milei and his government this month to bolster the South American nation’s collapsing currency.“We are working on a $20 billion facility that would complement our swap line, with private banks and sovereign funds that, I believe, would be more focused on the debt market,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Wednesday. He called it “a private-sector solution” and said “many banks are interested in it and many sovereign funds have expressed interest.”At a White House meeting Tuesday with Milei, Republican President Donald Trump said his administration wanted to help “our neighbors” with the aid package, but he also suggested that the money could be pulled if Milei’s party did not prevail in the Oct. 26 midterm elections.“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said.The Argentine peso weakened slightly Wednesday after Trump’s comments. The peso depreciated about 0.7%, with the dollar the currency Argentines rely on to save trading at 1,395 pesos, compared with 1,385 pesos the previous day.On Wall Street, shares of major Argentine companies rose slightly after dropping as much as 8.1% Tuesday upon Trump’s comments.In Argentina, the opposition’s criticism was swift.Former President Cristina Fernández, who is under house arrest after a corruption conviction, wrote on social media: “Trump to Milei in the United States: ‘Our agreements depend on who wins election.’ Argentines you already know what to do!”Martín Lousteau, president of the centrist Radical Civic Union, said “Trump doesn’t want to help a country he only wants to save Milei,” and that “nothing good can come of this.”Maximiliano Ferraro, head of the opposition Civic Coalition, called Trump’s comments “a blatant act of extortion against the Argentine Nation.” Vulcano reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fatima Hussein and Andrea Vulcano, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet are the five largest corporations by market cap, with the value of their combined shares totaling more than $16 trillion. These firms each pull in multiple billions of dollars in profit annually, and so pay tens of billions of dollars in annual taxes, too. But like other corporate giants in the S&P 500, the companies are also spending massive amounts on shareholder payouts, funneling trillions of dollars to wealthy shareholders through stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. Over the past five years, those five largest companies spent more than $1 trillion on stock buybacks and dividends, according to a new analysis from Oxfammore than five times what they paid in federal taxes over the same time period. Looking at the entire S&P 500, the largest U.S. companies spent nearly $1.6 trillion combined on stock buybacks and dividends in 2024 alone. Thats triple the income of the poorest 27 million U.S. households combined, which totals $498 billion. ‘Unprecedented’ shareholder payouts Theres been an unprecedented level of shareholder payouts in recent years, says Rebecca Riddell, senior policy lead for economic justice at Oxfam. That includes both dividends paid out to shareholders and also stock buybacks, which is when companies buy their own stocks, thereby making their stock price go up. (Since many executives also have stock-based compensation packages, this also increases their pay.) Oxfams latest analysis provides a snapshot of those payouts, and the way corporations are spending their cash. To Oxfam, money spent on shareholder payouts are funds that could have gone to other internal investments, like raising worker wages or making a company more sustainable. The nonprofit also wants to highlight the disparity between these payments and how much companies pay in taxes. Corporate taxes have been on the decline since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed during President Trumps first term. Under that law, the effective tax rates for large corporations fell from an average of 22% to an average of 12.8%, thanks to a lower overall rate and a range of tax loopholes. If those five companies had paid pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rates, Oxfam calculated that they would have paid an additional $168 billion in taxes over the past five years. Trumps recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act continues this trend, making permanent the TCJA tax cuts that were set to expire and bringing the effective corporate tax rate to as low as 12%, the lowest rate in U.S. history, per Morgan Stanley. The OBBBA also gives the biggest corporations nearly $1 trillion in new tax breaks. A possibility for change Theres a misconception, Riddell says, that shareholder payouts are a rising tide that will lift all boats in our economy. In reality, these actions overwhelmingly benefit the top 1% and wealthy executives, she says. “The bottom half of the United States owns just 1% of the stock market and very little of the overall retirement pie. And when it comes to tax breaks, theres an idea that when corporations save this money, they invest it elsewhere, like in workers or R&D. In reality, tax breaks fuel those enormous shareholder payouts. “Corporate tax savings aren’t being passed on to workers or consumers, she says. They’re being funneled to wealthy shareholders and executives.” Along with tax rates and stock buybacks, the Oxfam analysis also highlights the issue of enormous CEO pay: Over the past five years, the CEOs of the five largest U.S. companies made an average of $52 million annuallymore than 1,000 times what a typical worker earns in a year. These actions are fueling the growing inequality in our country, and theyre a direct result of policy, Riddell says. Theyre also occurring at a time when millions of Americans will soon lose their healthcare and access to food assistance because of funding cuts. But that means policymakers could take action to change these trends, too. That includes taxing or banning buybacks, capping dividends, supporting worker ownership, and adjusting the corporate tax code. (President Biden proposed tripling the tax that companies pay on stock buybacks, but the measure didn’t advance.) “What this analysis shows is that the corporations can drive inequality by enriching wealthy shareholders and directly through their compensation,” Riddell says. “But also it shows that there is a possibility for change.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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