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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, escalating a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor and standing unmoved by recent stock market turmoil and rising recession risks. Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States. I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social. After a brutal stock market selloff on Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a legitimate plan to grow the economy instead of perhaps pushing it into a recession. But so far the president is doubling down on the tariffs he talked up repeatedly during the 2024 campaign and throwing a once stable economy into utter turmoil as investors expected him to lead with deregulation and tax cuts instead of colossal tax hikes. The U.S. president has given a variety of explanations for his antagonism of Canada, saying that his separate 25% tariffs are about fentanyl smuggling and voicing objections to Canada putting high taxes on dairy imports that penalize U.S. farmers. But he continued to call for Canada to become part of the United States as a solution, a form of taunting that has infuriated Canadian leaders. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump posted on Tuesday. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that his government will keep tariffs in place until Americans show respect and commit to free trade after Trump threatened historic financial devastation for Canada. Carney, who will be sworn in as Justin Trudeaus replacement in the coming days, said Trumps latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade, Carney said in a statement. Canadian officials are planning retaliatory tariffs in response to Trumps specific steel and aluminum tariffs and they are expected to be announced Wednesday. Carney is referring to Canadas initial $30 billion Canadian (US$21 billion) worth of retaliatory tariffs have been applied on items like American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, after responding to Trump by raising electricity prices, said Tuesday on MSNBC that the U.S. people and its business leaders needed to speak up against the chaos caused by Trump’s launching of a trade war. If we go into a recession its self made by one person. Its called President Trumps recession, Ford said. It shouldnt be this way. We should be booming, both countries. The U.S. president condemned the use of electricity as a bargaining chip and threat, saying in a separate social media post on Tuesday that Canada “will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come! Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan and Trump pledged to declare a national emergency in those states. Trump also has targeted Mexico with 25% tariffs because of his dissatisfaction over drug trafficking and illegal immigration, though he suspended the taxes on imports that are compliant with the 2020 USMCA trade pact for one month. Asked if Mexico feared it could face the same 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as Canada, President Claudia Sheinbaum, said No, we are respectful. Trump was set to deliver a Tuesday afternoon address to the Business Roundtable, a trade association of CEOs that during the 2024 campaign he wooed with the promise of lower corporate tax rates for domestic manufacturers. But his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, steel, aluminum with plans for more to possibly come on Europe, Brazil, South Korea, pharmaceutical drugs, copper, lumber and computer chips would amount to a massive tax hike. The stock markets vote of no confidence over the past two weeks puts the president in a bind between his enthusiasm for taxing imports and his brand as a politician who understands business based on his own experiences in real estate, media and marketing. Harvard University economist Larry Summers, a former treasury secretary for the Clinton administration, on Monday put the odds of a recession at 50-50. All the emphasis on tariffs and all the ambiguity and uncertainty has both chilled demand and caused prices to go up, Summers posted on X. We are getting the worst of both worlds – concerns about inflation and an economic downturn and more uncertainty about the future and that slows everything. The investment bank Goldman Sachs revised down its growth forecast for this year to 1.7% from 2.2% previously. It modestly increased its recession probability to 20% because the White House has the option to pull back policy changes if downside risks begin to look more serious. Trump has tried to assure the public that his tariffs would cause a bit of a transition to the economy, with the taxes prodding more companies to begin the years-long process of relocating factories to the United States to avoid the tariffs. But he set off alarms in an interview broadcast on Sunday in which he didn’t rule out a possible recession. I hate to predict things like that, Trump said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures.” There is a period of transition, because what were doing is very big. Were bringing wealth back to America. Thats a big thing. And there are always periods of it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I dont I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.” The promise of great things ahead did not eliminate anxiety, with the S&P 500 stock index tumbling 2.7% on Monday in an unmistakable Trump slump that has erased the market gains that greeted his victory in November 2024. The S&P 50 index fell roughly 1% in Tuesday afternoon trading. Trump has long relied on the stock market as an economic and political gauge to follow, only to seemingly ignore it as he remains determined so far to impose tariffs. When he won the election last year, he proclaimed that he wanted his term to be considered to have started Nov. 6, 2024 on Election Day, rather than his January 20, 2025 inauguration, so that he could be credited for post-election stock market gains. Trump also repeatedly warned of an economic freefall if he lost the election. If I dont win, you will have a 1929-style depression. Enjoy it, Trump said at an August rally in Pennsylvania. Josh Boak, Rob Gillies and Michelle Price, Associated Press Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber took a clear swipe at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg when she took the stage at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin this week wearing a shirt that copied an infamous one he’d worn last year at a Meta product reveal event. Graber’s shirt read Mundus sine Caesaribus, or “A world without Caesars” in Latin. It was the same design as Zuckerberg’s shirt from last year that read, Aut Zuck aut nihil, which is a play on the phrase, Aut Caesar aut nihil: Either Caesar or nothing. Graber’s not-so-subtle message seemed to be that decentralized platforms, like the one she’s building with Bluesky, prioritize users over the platform’s bottom-line interests. “If a billionaire came in and bought Bluesky or took it over or, if I decided tomorrow to change things in a way that people really didnt like, then they could fork off and go on to another application,” Graber said while onstage. “Theres already applications in the network that give you another way to view the network or you could build a new one as well. And so that openness guarantees that theres always the ability to move to a new alternative.” Seeking freedom from billionaire control Bluesky, which is built on the open-source AT Protocol, really took off after the November presidential election, when X owner Elon Musk gained a large stake in President Trump’s campaign and subsequent administration. Users like the fact that Bluesky’s open social media ecosystem ultimately means that no one person controls it. So far, it’s amassed more than 33 million total users. To be sure, it’s still a long way from reaching the user numbers that Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp enjoy. Meta said in its full-year 2024 earnings report that it has 3.35 billion daily active users across its whole family of apps. Still, Graber is optimistic in Bluesky’s model. “We want to give people real choicenot just a new platform, but a new paradigm,” she said.
Category:
E-Commerce
Southwest Airlines’ signature tagline Bags Fly Free seems to be a thing of the past. Since its inception nearly 60 years ago, the airline has offered customers two complimentary checked bags as part of its pitch to distinguish it from competitors. But by this summer, it seems, Southwest will have to replace its oft-repeated slogan with a new one: bags fly for an added fee. Thats because any customers who are not members of Southwests frequent fliers programs or traveling in an upgraded seat will have to pay for their checked bags, starting with flights booked after May 28, according to a company press release. The airline did not provide specific rates for the new fees. Southwest also announced that flight credits will now expire after one year, walking back a policy put in place during the pandemic that allowed customers to keep their credits indefinitely. So far, the reaction to the new bag fees has been overwhelmingly negative. But, when observed alongside all of the other changes that Southwest has made to its programming over the past several months, its not exactly surprising. As of last month, shares of Southwest’s stock (NYSE: LUV) were down nearly 50% compared to five years ago. In an effort to appease its investors, Southwest has been on a mission to aggressively cut costs and implement a slew of added fees. Those cost-saving policy changes appear to jettison all of the elements that once made Southwest’s brand identity distinct. Turbulence for Southwest’s leadership From its inception in 1966, Southwest has cultivated a reputation as a quirky, lower-cost carrier with unique perks and an equitable approach to seating that endeared it to a base of loyal fans. However, those perks have been first on the companys chopping block as its reduced costs and implemented more Spirit-esque fees to drive sales. Over the past several months, Southwest has been rolling out an overhaul intended to catch up with competitors like Delta and United by reviving its shrinking profits and the downward trajectory of its stock. The breakneck pace of this overhaul has been egged on by hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which owns a $1.9 billion minority stake in the company and has frequently publicly criticized Southwest for not adapting to the times and cutting costs. Southwest kicked off 2024 by debuting an interior cabin redesign, which is set hit runways this year. While the company argued that the revamped look was made with comfort in mind, customers pointed out that the seating looked like a major downgrademainly because, based on renderings provided by the company, the seats looked almost comically thin and rigid. TikTok users dubbed them lawn chairs and Ozempic seats. But, as it turns out, the lackluster seating was only a harbinger of the airlines larger plans to come. A once-quirky airline joins a sea of corporate sameness Southwest has spent the last few months nixing its most distinctive offerings. In September, the company announced that it would slash its open seating policy, one of its characteristic brand traits, which allowed every Southwest passenger to choose their own seat when boarding. At the same time, the company revealed that it would swap a third of its seats for more premium chairs, which come with more legroom, faster Wi-Fi, and larger overhead binsfor an added cost, of course. This new seating policy on its own was enough to cause Fast Company to ask whether Southwest was losing its Southwest-ness by sacrificing its unfussy reputation for greater profits. Even during the September investor call announcing the end of open seating, though, Southwest executives argued that ending the signature Bags Fly Free plan would be a destructive step too far, adding that they estimated charging bag fees would bring in about $1.5 billion per year but cost another $1.8 billion in lost business. The program was so central to Southwests identity that the company trademarked the Bags Fly Free slogan and has a whole backlog of ads, going back decades, that center on the promise (see this spot from 2009 and this one from 2023.) Now, Southwest is scrapping the last vestige of its recognizable brand identity by backtracking on free bags. The backlash from fans has been swift. On X, one recent tweet with 4,000 likes and counting reads, If Southwest Airlines had assembled a focus group and asked them what’s the stupidest thing that we could do to ruin our company, this is what they would have come up with. Another tweet with 11,000 likes adds, Is Southwest aware that now people are no longer incentivized to fly with them?? Popular opinion may have turned against the airline, but the market seems to approve. As of this writing, Southwest stock is up around 9%. The market also responded positively last month when the airline announced that it planned to lay off 15% of its corporate workforce in another cost-cutting measure. As Southwest continues to whittle away the perks it once touted, its become just another set of wings in an industr full of likeminded competitors.
Category:
E-Commerce
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