News'n'Clues - BUSINESS Article Summaries

Here's what the smartest people in markets and economics are saying about Trump's tariffs

Source: {'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'} Published: 2025-04-06 17:50:00

President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2 — and people have been reacting as global markets take a hammering. Here's what big names in business and economics have been saying: Joshua Bolten, the CEO of Business Roundtable, an association that represents more than 200 CEOs, said in a statement the tariffs "run the risk of causing major harm to American manufacturers, workers, families and exporters." He added: "Damage to the US economy will increase the longer the tariffs are in place and may be exacerbated by retaliatory measures." He said the Business Roundtable "supports President Trump's goal of securing better and fairer trade deals with our trading partners" but called on him to introduce "additional reasonable exemptions" and a "transparent, predictable exclusion process." "Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much," Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary, wrote on X. "The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now closer to $30 trillion." Summers added that the tariffs were the most expensive and "masochistic" the US had imposed in decades. "The price action in global financial markets in the immediate aftermath of the US tariff announcement points to major worries about global economic growth," Mohamed El-Erian, the former CEO of bond giant PIMCO and the chief economic advisor at Allianz, said on X. "These tariffs will cause inflation in the United States; they will cause lower consumer power of US workers. The estimates are between $1,700 to $5,000 per family in terms of the costs of these tariffs," Mariana Mazzucato, an economics professor at University College London, told ITV's "Peston" program. Boaz Weinstein, Saba Capital Management's founder, doesn't expect Trump to change course, posting on X: "I'm often wrong, but I don't see him doing a u-turn. This is not a buy-the-dip opportunity. It's a sell the dip opportunity." "So, this tariff file is now being labeled 'Make America Wealthy Again'? What is with that adverb 'again' which is defined as 'returning to a previous condition'? The previous condition, I can tell you, was not nearly as good as the current condition, seeing as US net national net worth just reached a record level of $157 TRILLION (a cool $1.2 million per household … too bad we don't all live at the average!)," David Rosenberg, the founder and president of Rosenberg Research & Associates, said on X. "Have tariffs really stood in the way of wealth creation in America? I think the title should simply be the truth: 'Let's Make the World Poor Again' (and then we can buy it at a discount)," Rosenberg added. Nouriel Roubini, a professor emeritus of the NYU Stern School of Business, said the "Liberation Day" label was "Orwellian doublespeak." "Whatever the consequences of these tariffs will be — ie lower growth and higher inflation and how much of it depending on the eventual size of these tariffs post-negotiations that will be ugly and long-drawn. There is absolutely no 'liberation' at all in them: not for US consumers, workers and businesses, let alone for the rest of the world," he said on X. "I guess it's just possible that when we get details about the Trump tariffs they will be lower than what he just announced, but based on what he said, he's gone full-on crazy," Paul Krugman, a Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist and former MIT and Princeton University professor, wrote in his Substack newsletter. "If you had any hopes that Trump would step back from the brink, this announcement, between the very high tariff rates and the complete falsehoods about what other countries do, should kill them," Krugman added. "March continued with President Trump's rapid executive orders and policy changes, as tariffs (along with their potential impact on the economy), inflation, employment and consumer spending became the main concerns of the market, which pulled back with increased trading on strong negative breadth," wrote Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst of S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a S&P Global column. "Adding to the concern were Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) government employment reductions, as well as US layoffs, which have increased (along with retail warnings)," he added. "The price level from all 2025 tariffs rises by 2.3% in the short-run, the equivalent of an average per household consumer loss of $3,800 in 2024$. Annual losses for households at the bottom of the income distribution are $1,700," wrote the Yale Budget Lab in a new analysis published on April 2, shortly after Trump's blanket tariff announcement. "True, the United States is a large and dominant country. And it is a relatively closed country, meaning we depend less on trade than most other countries," said Jared Bernstein, former chief economist, in his newsletter. "That means, as Trump has correctly argued, we can hurt them more than they can hurt us. He fails to give a coherent rationale for why we need to start a trade war with Canada, Mexico, Japan, Europe, and other traditionally reliable trading partners." "First, though they've been explicitly cavalier about the pain they're causing, higher inflation, slower growth, lower investment, falling stock prices — as of this moment, the Dow is down 1,200 points — and higher recession chances could force them to recant. But, at least so far, that may have been the way of Trump 1; it's not the way of Trump 2," he added. "Monstrously destructive, incoherent, ill-informed tariffs based on fabrications, imagined wrongs, discredited theories and ignorance of decades of evidence. And the real tragedy is that they will hurt working Americans more than anyone else," said Justin Wolfers, economics professor at University of Michigan and public policy scholar, on BlueSky. "If these tariffs were more targeted and on specific goods, I wouldn't be so sure we would have stagflation. But these appear to be extremely broad, so I expect higher inflation and lower or even negative economic growth," said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin chief economist, on BlueSky. "Home construction was already going to be weak this year, but these tariffs (combined with labor problems from immigration policy) will mean fewer homes built," she added. The latest set of tariffs is "a similar event to going off the gold standard in 1971. It's an epic event. It's not something where you can time quickly for a market bottom. It's something that we're going to have to live with as long as President Trump continues with this stance," Bill Gross, the cofounder of Pimco, told CNBC. "I don't think he's going to back down. President Trump, to be very blunt, is a macho male, and this macho male is not going to back down tomorrow simply because the Nasdaq's down 5%," said Gross, who's also known as "Bond King." Gross said it's not a time for investors to bottom fish, likening it to "catching a falling knife." "Tariffs attack US trading partners but, in effect, attack US corporate profit margins first," wrote Steven Blitz, the chief US economist at GlobalData.TS Lombard. "The 40-odd years of profits rising relative to GDP has ended. The macro risk hitting markets is real, but only accentuates the devaluation process." "Further exacerbating market volatility is redirection of foreign capital from the US to wherever multiple expansion appears more promising," Blitz wrote. Jim O'Neill, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs, told BBC News on Friday that the "sensible" thing to do would be for the UK to speak to other members of G7, aside from the US, about lowering trade barriers between each other, particularly for cross-border services. He said this would be "very healthy for all those countries because it's the one area of global trade that most countries haven't done enough in." If the US wants to continue down this "kamikaze path," the UK will have to respond, O'Neill added. "It is the US which is going to be hurt more, especially in the short-term, from these rather insane moves." "Just had a journalist ask me to explain "Liberation Day," Stephanie Kelton, author of The Deficit Myth, wrote in a post on X. "I told him it's about liberating Americans from some of the cash in their wallets." George Saravelos, a Deutsche Bank analyst, said in a Friday note that markets were pricing in a global recession. "This is a US-centric fiscal shock driven by the Trump administration and it is fiscal policy that can unwind it. The countries that respond the quickest and most forcefully to this shock are those whose currencies will likely be the most resilient. And, on the flipside, the more the US fiscal strategy under the Trump administration lacks visibility, the more the market will punish the dollar and US assets. "One last point: don't expect a reluctant-to-cut Fed to support the dollar. Remember that during the European supply-shock of 2022, the ECB turned hawkish. The euro sold-off regardless because real rates and growth expectations collapsed." Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that US tariffs posed a "significant risk" to the global economy. "We are still assessing the macroeconomic implications of the announced tariff measures, but they clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth," she said in a statement on Thursday. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, told Ireland's Newstalk that the tariffs would be "negative the world over." She said Trump's move "will not be good for the global economy and it will not be good for those who inflict the tariffs and those who retaliate." Lloyd Blankfein, the former Goldman Sachs CEO, posted on X on Friday: "The switchboard at the WH must be burning up with gov'ts trying to surrender in this trade war. Why not give them a chance? Make the 10pct min tariff immediate but defer the "reciprocal" part 6 mos. Take the win! The Prez said he'd make us tired of winning…I'm there now!" Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday said that the scope of Trump's tariffs actions surpassed all expectations. "While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected," Powell said at a conference for business journalists. "The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth." The central bank president repeatedly said it was too early to tell what the Fed's response might be. "We've taken a step back and we're watching to see what the policies turn out to be and the ways in which they will affect the economy, and then we'll be able to act, he said." Kevin Corinth, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning, DC-based think tank, wrote in an article published Friday that the formula behind Trump's tariffs, which puts heavy emphasis on trade deficits, makes "no economic sense." "The trade deficit with a given country is not determined only by tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers, but also by international capital flows, supply chains, comparative advantage, geography, etc," Corinth wrote. "But even if one were to take the Trump Administration's tariff formula seriously, it makes an error that inflates the tariffs assumed to be levied by foreign countries four-fold." In a post on X on Thursday, Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, warned that a recession could "hit imminently and extend until next year" should Trump continue with his tariffs and other countries retaliate. "Real GDP will fall close to 2% peak to trough, and unemployment will increase from its current 4% to 7.5% at its peak next year. I attach a 15% probability to this dark scenario," he predicted. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, veteran analyst Ed Yardeni said he hoped the "message that the stock market is sending to the administration is being heard." "The market is giving a big thumbs down to this tariff policy," he added. Brad Setser, former senior advisor to the US trade representative and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the latest round of tariffs will be "painful." "I think what the announcement on Wednesday showed is that the decision of the administration, not surprisingly, was to follow President Trump's instincts, not the instincts of his more moderate advisors, to go all in," Setser said on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast. Setser said the goal is to "radically restructure the US and global economies using tariffs as a tool, with some flexibility perhaps to negotiate at the edges. But fundamentally, this is a test of what you can and cannot do with tariffs, and there was very little restraint, I would say, apart for, strangely enough, Canada and Mexico, USMCA, on the level of the tariffs." Greg Daco, the chief economist at Ernst & Young, told Yahoo Finance that "the risk of a recession are very real" with the tariffs in place. "The risks of a particularly severe recession are real, because if these tariffs remain in place on a persistent basis, you would see a drag on US economic activity worth about 1% to 1.5% of growth," he said. "In an economy that is expected to grow around 1.5%, that puts the economy essentially into stagnation. Add to that a 1% to 1.5% lift on inflation, and you have stagflation." Douglas Irwin, the trade historian and economics professor at Dartmouth College, wrote in The Economist that Trump's tariffs "blow an enormous hole" in the trade policy that the US has advanced since World War II. "The president now touts his tariffs as mainly 'reciprocal': 'Whatever they charge us, we charge them.' This makes them sound fair. Far from it," Irwin said. "Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this week's events is the ability of one person to completely remake American trade policy. A situation in which the occupant of the White House can make such momentous changes on his own, unchecked, reflects serious political decay in American politics." One day before Trump's latest tariff announcement, the economist Thomas Sowell told the Hoover Institution that the president's tariffs could lead to a global trade war. "It's painful to see a ruinous decision from back in the 1920s being repeated," Sowell said. "If you set off a worldwide trade war, that has a devastating history." "Everybody loses because everybody follows suit," he continued. "And all that happens is that you get a great reduction in international trade." Jump to

Why we can't let go of our childhood friends, even when we don't have anything in common anymore

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 16:00:02

Related Stories When the season finale of "The White Lotus" airs on Sunday, viewers are expecting lots of questions to be answered: Will Gaitok confront Valentin? Does Piper still want to stay in Thailand? And of course, who is killed? Audiences will also be tuning into to find out how exactly the girls' trip storyline plays out. For the last seven episodes we've seen three childhood best friends, played by Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, and Carrie Coon, struggle to bond at this luxury resort. For anyone who has desperately tried to sustain the spark with a childhood friend, this dynamic is all too familiar. Despite growing apart, developing different values, and physically moving away from each other, childhood friends can be unexpectedly hard to let go. Why is it so challenging to call it quits with someone you talk to quarterly? There are a few explanations, experts say. Long-term friends can symbolize a part of our former selves that we miss. They can also signal to others that we are capable of maintaining deep relationships for a long time, a quality most people like to believe they possess. Childhood friends are evidence that we had some fun growing up, says Eman Almusawi, a therapist at A Better Life Therapy. The memories we attach to them are part of our origin stories. "It's like a piece of our identity is woven into these connections, and when we try to move on, it can feel like we're letting go of part of ourselves," she says. If you live in different places and are in varying stages of life, much of the conversation is rooted in the past. You might gossip about mutual acquaintances or reminisce about old romances, all in hopes of returning you to that intimate dynamic you once enjoyed. "Instead of bringing us closer, these conversations can feel awkward and forced," Almusawi says. "It's like trying to fit into an old pair of jeans — what used to fit perfectly now feels out of place." Having long-term friendships can also feel like "proof" that you're good at maintaining relationships, says Christie Tate, a writer and author of "BFF: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found." Just like a decades-long marriage is a sign of success, a decades-long friendship signals a kind of aptitude for sustaining connections. "[It says] I've changed and grown but I'm still connected with these people," Tate says. "That says I'm a good person who is good at relationships, and to fail feels terrible." Being the type of person who loses friends often doesn't align with the view many of us have of ourselves, she adds. "I like the idea that I'm a person with roots and long-term relationships," Tate says. "I don't like the idea that I'm unable to hold on. That is inconsistent with the narrative I have about myself." Even when it's clear that we just don't have much in common anymore, as is the case in "The White Lotus," sometimes it feels more painful to let go than to sit through a passive aggressive dinner. Do you want a new career that's higher-paying, more flexible or fulfilling? Take CNBC's new online course How to Change Careers and Be Happier at Work. Expert instructors will teach you strategies to network successfully, revamp your resume and confidently transition into your dream career. Pre-register today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $67 (+taxes and fees) through May 13, 2025. Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life. Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It © 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBC Universal

Market crash not part of Trump's strategy, says top White House economic advisor

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 15:46:09

Vietnam 'ready' to remove US import tariffs as it seeks delay to Trump's 46% levy

Source: {'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'} Published: 2025-04-06 14:53:00

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Americans looking to retire aren't concerned about day-to-day markets, dismisses concerns about a potential recession

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 14:37:56

For bitcoin bulls who self-custody crypto, the global risks are growing

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 14:19:30

Credit Cards Loans Banking Mortgages Insurance Credit Monitoring Personal Finance Small Business Taxes Help for Low Credit Scores Investing SELECT All Credit Cards Find the Credit Card for You Best Credit Cards Best Rewards Credit Cards Best Travel Credit Cards Best 0% APR Credit Cards Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards Best Cash Back Credit Cards Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses Best Credit Cards to Build Credit SELECT All Loans Find the Best Personal Loan for You Best Personal Loans Best Debt Consolidation Loans Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt Best Loans with Fast Funding Best Small Personal Loans Best Large Personal Loans Best Personal Loans to Apply Online Best Student Loan Refinance SELECT All Banking Find the Savings Account for You Best High Yield Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Checking Accounts Best No Fee Checking Accounts No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts Best Checking Account Bonuses Best Money Market Accounts Best CDs Best Credit Unions SELECT All Mortgages Best Mortgages Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment Best Mortgages for No Down Payment Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score Adjustable Rate Mortgages Affording a Mortgage SELECT All Insurance Best Life Insurance Best Homeowners Insurance Best Renters Insurance Best Car Insurance Travel Insurance SELECT All Credit Monitoring Best Credit Monitoring Services Best Identity Theft Protection How to Boost Your Credit Score Credit Repair Services SELECT All Personal Finance Best Budgeting Apps Best Expense Tracker Apps Best Money Transfer Apps Best Resale Apps and Sites Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps Best Debt Relief SELECT All Small Business Best Small Business Savings Accounts Best Small Business Checking Accounts Best Credit Cards for Small Business Best Small Business Loans Best Tax Software for Small Business SELECT All Taxes Filing For Free Best Tax Software Best Tax Software for Small Businesses Tax Refunds Tax Brackets Tax Tips Tax By State Tax Payment Plans SELECT All Help for Low Credit Scores Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Best Mortgages for Bad Credit Best Hardship Loans How to Boost Your Credit Score SELECT All Investing Best IRA Accounts Best Roth IRA Accounts Best Investing Apps Best Free Stock Trading Platforms Best Robo-Advisors Index Funds Mutual Funds ETFs Bonds Whether to buy cryptocurrency as a long-term holding may be the biggest decision an investor interested in digital assets has to make, but where to store crypto like bitcoin can become the most consequential. Following the wildfires earlier this year in California, social media posts began to appear with claims of bitcoin losses, with some users showing metal plates intended to protect seed phrases burnt up and illegible or describing the complexity of recovering crypto keys stored in a safety deposit box in a bank impacted by the fires. While impossible to verify individual claims about fires consuming hard drives, laptops and other storage devices containing so-called hard and cold storage crypto wallets and seed phrases, what is certain is that bitcoin self-custody presents a unique set of security issues. And those risks are growing. Holders of crypto typically use some form of what can be called a "wallet," and there are a few main features – whether that wallet is connected to the internet, and how much control is directly embedded in the wallet for trades and transfers. There is also the underlying issue of whether a crypto investor uses a third party for custody at all, or maintains total custody and trading control over their holdings. The standard third-party platform "hot wallet" – think of an offering from a Coinbase or Blockchain.com – is constantly connected to the internet. Cold storage and "cold wallets," on the other hand, include hardware devices (like a USB stick) that holds private keys offline, or even just a seed phrase (a master recovery code, a collection of 12 to 24 words used to recover access to a crypto wallet) on paper/metal. Hardware wallets or offline backups of seed phrases can be used to access crypto when connected to the internet through another device. With third-party custodial options, there are steps to help owners remain vigilant against the threat posed by cybercriminals who can gain access to an internet-connected platform, including the use of two-factor authentication, and strong passwords. The U.S. Marshals Service within the Department of Justice, which is responsible for asset forfeiture from U.S. law enforcement, uses Coinbase Prime to provide custody for its seized digital assets. Many crypto bulls prefer to self-custody digital assets like bitcoin for some of the same reasons they are interested in cryptocurrencies to begin with: lack of faith in some forms of institutional control. Custodial wallets from crypto brokers trade convenience for the risk of exchange hacks, shutdowns, or fraud, as in the case of the high-profile implosion of FTX. And the wildfires are just one example in a recent string of global events that raise more questions about shifts in the crypto custody debate. There is the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine war, which has led crypto bulls from overseas to re-think their approach to self-custody. Nick Neuman, co-founder and CEO of self-custody company Casa, said physical risks in the world like a natural disaster are an opportunity to revisit how bitcoin security works, and the common security lapses folded into most peoples' practices. "Most people secure their bitcoin with one private key. If that key is on a single device or written down on paper as a seed phrase, it's a single point of failure. If you lose that key, your bitcoin is gone," he said. It should be obvious that keeping seed phrases on paper offers the lowest level of protection against fire, yet it is common practice, Neuman said. Slipping these pieces of paper into fireproof bags or safes offer some protection, but not much, and even going the extra steps to have the seed phrases on "indestructible" metal storage plates presents a few failure points. For one, they might prove to be not so indestructible, and second, they may be impossible to locate amid the rubble. "Logically, given the location of the fires in California and the stories being shared on X, it's highly likely bitcoin was lost," said Neuman. "Some of them are pretty convincing," he said. Casa performs annual stress tests on seed phrase backups. Some self-custody services, like Casa, offer multi-signature setups that reduce the risks of single-point failure. A multi-key crypto "vault" can include mobile phone keys, multiple hardware keys, and a recovery key that a company likes Casa holds on an owner's behalf. The multi-sig custody approach allows an owner to hold a majority of keys while a trusted partner holds a minority of keys. John Haar, managing director at Swan Bitcoin, says that in such a setup, the owner would need to lose all the physical devices and all copies of the seed phrases at the same time. As long as the owner can access at least one device or one seed phrase, they would be able to recover their bitcoin. This approach should significantly limit the potential for all of the devices to be lost in an event like a natural disaster, Haar said. "You can spread these keys across multiple regions or even countries, and you need any three of the five keys to approve a bitcoin transaction," Neuman said of Casa's five-key approach. Jordan Baltazor, chief administrative officer at Fortress Trust, a regulated crypto custodian, says best practices that we use in other areas of personal life should apply to cryptocurrency. For one, diversification of storage approach and weighing of risks. Digital assets are no different, he says, when it comes to backing up personal and sensitive data on the cloud to ensure data against loss or corruption. Companies including Coinbase and Jack Dorsey's Block offer products that try to merge some of these ideas, creating a more secure version of a crypto wallet that remains convenient to use. There is Coinbase Vault, which includes enhanced security steps before a user can access crypto holdings for trading. And there is Coinbase Wallet and Block's Bitkey, which have mobile apps that work like a traditional wallet making moving bitcoin around easy, but with the ability to pair with hardware wallets and added security more commonly associated with cold storage. Bitkey hardware requires multiple authorizations for transactions for added security, similar to "multi-sig wallets." Bitkey also offers recovery tools so one of the biggest risks of self-custody — losing codes or phrases needed to recover a cold wallet — is less of an issue. Solutions like Dorsey's may help to solve the tension between convenience and security; at minimum, they underline that this tension exists and will likely be something of a roadblock to more widespread crypto adoption. Beyond the risks out there in the form of wildfires, all kinds of natural disasters, and wars, bitcoin self-custody can be vulnerable to the biggest personal risk of all: unexpected death of the bitcoin owner. There is arguably nothing more complicated than inheritance when it comes to unlocking the crypto chain of custody. Coinbase requires probate court documents and specific will designations before releasing funds from custody, while physical wallets offer little to no support, potentially leaving all that digital value stuck on a private key. Bitkey rolled out its inheritance solution in February for what a Bitkey executive called, "kind of a multibillion-dollar problem waiting to happen." "People who have a material investment in bitcoin absolutely need to be thinking differently about how to protect it," Neuman said. He says that after disasters like the California wildfires, or when exchanges go bust like FTX, the industry does see more crypto holders taking action to move to more secure storage setups. "I suppose it's human nature to wait until 'bad things happen' to spur action to improve your own personal situation," he said. "But I think people would be better off if they were more proactive. Otherwise, they risk having that 'bad thing' happen to them, and then it's too late," he said. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by

Google, Microsoft and IBM are bullish on quantum computing. Are the chips of the future for real?

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 13:57:47

Credit Cards Loans Banking Mortgages Insurance Credit Monitoring Personal Finance Small Business Taxes Help for Low Credit Scores Investing SELECT All Credit Cards Find the Credit Card for You Best Credit Cards Best Rewards Credit Cards Best Travel Credit Cards Best 0% APR Credit Cards Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards Best Cash Back Credit Cards Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses Best Credit Cards to Build Credit SELECT All Loans Find the Best Personal Loan for You Best Personal Loans Best Debt Consolidation Loans Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt Best Loans with Fast Funding Best Small Personal Loans Best Large Personal Loans Best Personal Loans to Apply Online Best Student Loan Refinance SELECT All Banking Find the Savings Account for You Best High Yield Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Checking Accounts Best No Fee Checking Accounts No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts Best Checking Account Bonuses Best Money Market Accounts Best CDs Best Credit Unions SELECT All Mortgages Best Mortgages Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment Best Mortgages for No Down Payment Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score Adjustable Rate Mortgages Affording a Mortgage SELECT All Insurance Best Life Insurance Best Homeowners Insurance Best Renters Insurance Best Car Insurance Travel Insurance SELECT All Credit Monitoring Best Credit Monitoring Services Best Identity Theft Protection How to Boost Your Credit Score Credit Repair Services SELECT All Personal Finance Best Budgeting Apps Best Expense Tracker Apps Best Money Transfer Apps Best Resale Apps and Sites Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps Best Debt Relief SELECT All Small Business Best Small Business Savings Accounts Best Small Business Checking Accounts Best Credit Cards for Small Business Best Small Business Loans Best Tax Software for Small Business SELECT All Taxes Filing For Free Best Tax Software Best Tax Software for Small Businesses Tax Refunds Tax Brackets Tax Tips Tax By State Tax Payment Plans SELECT All Help for Low Credit Scores Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Best Mortgages for Bad Credit Best Hardship Loans How to Boost Your Credit Score SELECT All Investing Best IRA Accounts Best Roth IRA Accounts Best Investing Apps Best Free Stock Trading Platforms Best Robo-Advisors Index Funds Mutual Funds ETFs Bonds To join the CNBC Technology Executive Council, go to cnbccouncils.com/tec While there are still differing perspectives on how long it will be until certain types of quantum computing hit commercial viability, experts from big tech companies like Google and IBM as well as smaller organizations like D-Wave Quantum and TreQ generally agree on quantum's most mature, promising industry applications, which range from medical insights to last-mile delivery optimization. Yet, in a space teeming with unknowns, there's still a lot to learn about the potential fate of a world in quantum's hands. Unlike classical computing, which processes information through bits that can exist in either zeros or ones, quantum computing is an evolving field where quantum bits (or qubits) can occupy both zero and one in a single unit. These qubits can then basically communicate with each other to further increase the speed and complexity of information processing in a calculation. Within the field of quantum computing, there are two types of technologies. What most people refer to when they talk about it is universal gate-based models. The second model is called annealing quantum. "It's a different technology," explained Mandy Birch, CEO and founder of TreQ, a quantum systems engineering company focused on manufacturing applications. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM are aggressively pursuing gate-model quantum computing, each with different qubit technologies and strategies. D-Wave is largely working with annealing technology, which primarily serves companies that want to optimize their operations. Annealing models still have a ways to go, but unlike gate models that researchers are still developing, annealing is able to deliver commercial value today. "It's more of a heuristic than it is an absolute solution," Birch said about annealing technology. Still, these systems can generally help companies improve operational efficiency compared to what they can achieve with classical computing systems. "Quantum computers are capable of solving problems that are impossible for AI or supercomputers even in the best case," said Charina Chou, chief operating officer at Google Quantum AI, maker of the quantum computing processor Willow chip at the recent SXSW conference. Here, Chou is referring to a concept called quantum supremacy, where quantum technology completes complex calculations no classical computer could realistically complete (for example, a five-minute quantum calculation might take 10 septillion years on a binary supercomputer). Alternatively, some quantum systems may achieve quantum advantage, where they simply do better than classical computing. Scientists at D-Wave as well as institutions like Vancouver's Quantum Matter Institute published a breakthrough report in March announcing that its annealing quantum technology achieved "the world's first and only demonstration of quantum computational supremacy on a useful, real-world problem." The company performed magnetic materials simulation in minutes with a level of accuracy that would take nearly one million years using a classical supercomputer. In an interview, D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz explained that this capability can advance technologies like smartphones and sensors. "We use sensors in MRIs, brain scanners, heart scanners. These sensors are magnetic material," he said. "The benefit that comes from this is the ability to see things in the human body that we still can't see for better understanding, better diagnosis." Barataz also told CNBC back in January that D-Wave is "commercial today," and companies including Mastercard and Japan's NTT Docomo are using its quantum computers in production to benefit their business operations. "Not 30 years from now, not 20 years from now, not 15 years from now," Baratz said. It is also used by Patterson Food Group to optimize workforce scheduling. D-Wave's revenue is still low, with the most recent quarterly sales reported at $1.9 million. Chou also pointed to the importance of quantum's advancements in the medical space. "Twenty-one years ago, my husband [...] was facing a very tough cancer diagnosis," she said. He went through chemo and radiation, neither of which worked, but he was fortunate enough to get on a clinical trial that saved him. Today, Chou's husband is an oncologist. Using quantum computing for "calculating fundamentally what is happening inside these molecules themselves" could increase our ability to solve these problems, Chou said. On the gate-model side of the quantum equation, Birch is confident that any place a high-performance computer is important today is going to be majorly changed by quantum in the future. But she added, "I don't know if that means in five years, 10 years or 20 years." She foresees the financial industry making use of quantum optimization, but she's particularly excited about the impact on the pharmaceutical industry, which is inherently quantum mechanical because of its use of organic compounds (actually, all matter and energy is quantum mechanical by nature). Referring to pharmaceutical work, Birch said, "Right now, the molecular dynamics are so complex that the math quickly gets out of hand. ... But just imagine, in a drug discovery process, instead of having to do all the wet chemistry one experiment at a time, to be able to run through millions of simulations on a computer at a molecular dynamics level before you ever get into the wet chemistry and the trial." This, she said, would give scientists a much higher probability of finding solutions, and that would also inform industries including aerospace and defense. Some worry about potential negative impact given how powerful the tech could be, but Birch said, "Technology is always neutral. It's when you put it into human hands that it does good or bad." "Then there's more boring and ubiquitous things like optimization," Birch said. "If you can save 1% on your fuel bill if you're FedEx, UPS, that's really important." Port logistics optimization is already in action today. One thing that any quantum solution will likely do is perform computations using hybrid solutions that partner with supercomputers and AI computers. Some work can be done natively on quantum alone, but with all of the infrastructure that is already in place, it makes sense to use what's out there. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by

Op-ed: First test in Trump's tariffs war is underway. Our government is set to fail it

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 13:51:26

Credit Cards Loans Banking Mortgages Insurance Credit Monitoring Personal Finance Small Business Taxes Help for Low Credit Scores Investing SELECT All Credit Cards Find the Credit Card for You Best Credit Cards Best Rewards Credit Cards Best Travel Credit Cards Best 0% APR Credit Cards Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards Best Cash Back Credit Cards Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses Best Credit Cards to Build Credit SELECT All Loans Find the Best Personal Loan for You Best Personal Loans Best Debt Consolidation Loans Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt Best Loans with Fast Funding Best Small Personal Loans Best Large Personal Loans Best Personal Loans to Apply Online Best Student Loan Refinance SELECT All Banking Find the Savings Account for You Best High Yield Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Savings Accounts Best Big Bank Checking Accounts Best No Fee Checking Accounts No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts Best Checking Account Bonuses Best Money Market Accounts Best CDs Best Credit Unions SELECT All Mortgages Best Mortgages Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment Best Mortgages for No Down Payment Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score Adjustable Rate Mortgages Affording a Mortgage SELECT All Insurance Best Life Insurance Best Homeowners Insurance Best Renters Insurance Best Car Insurance Travel Insurance SELECT All Credit Monitoring Best Credit Monitoring Services Best Identity Theft Protection How to Boost Your Credit Score Credit Repair Services SELECT All Personal Finance Best Budgeting Apps Best Expense Tracker Apps Best Money Transfer Apps Best Resale Apps and Sites Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps Best Debt Relief SELECT All Small Business Best Small Business Savings Accounts Best Small Business Checking Accounts Best Credit Cards for Small Business Best Small Business Loans Best Tax Software for Small Business SELECT All Taxes Filing For Free Best Tax Software Best Tax Software for Small Businesses Tax Refunds Tax Brackets Tax Tips Tax By State Tax Payment Plans SELECT All Help for Low Credit Scores Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Best Mortgages for Bad Credit Best Hardship Loans How to Boost Your Credit Score SELECT All Investing Best IRA Accounts Best Roth IRA Accounts Best Investing Apps Best Free Stock Trading Platforms Best Robo-Advisors Index Funds Mutual Funds ETFs Bonds To learn more about the CNBC CFO Council, visit cnbccouncils.com/cfo President Trump's new tariff regime, formally triggered by his invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, is no longer theoretical. On Saturday, a baseline 10% tariff was first applied to nearly all imports. On April 9, that will escalate to higher, individualized rates on countries with the largest trade deficits with the United States. What's being framed as a bold reassertion of U.S. economic sovereignty is a high-stakes test of the federal government's implementation capacity — one that we are plainly unprepared to pass. The administration's expansive use of IEEPA — meant for more traditional types of national emergencies — now serves as the foundation for remaking the entire U.S. trade regime. The fact sheet accompanying the order is wide-ranging: a policy aimed at correcting global imbalances, restoring manufacturing, reshoring supply chains, confronting non-market economies, and ensuring the defense industrial base is no longer dependent on foreign adversaries. It's a real grab bag of the greatest hits from a long list of well-known Trump grievances. But one thing the fact sheet does not offer is a coherent implementation plan. The policy goals far surpass the capacity of the current federal government to effectively and timely implement the tariffs. To impose variable tariffs across all trading partners — with hard to follow and sundry carveouts, retaliatory triggers, national security exemptions, and modification authorities — requires more than presidential intent. It demands a well-resourced bureaucracy, a clearly articulated process, and interagency coordination at a scale not seen in recent memory. And none of that is currently in place. Agencies such as USTR, Commerce, and Treasury will be central players in standing up this structure. But it is Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — already stretched thin — that will be responsible for frontline enforcement. CBP is underfunded, understaffed, and ill-equipped to absorb this kind of policy shock. They will be asked to manage a flood of product classification disputes, origin verification challenges, and tariff compliance actions with no significant augmentation of manpower, increased systems and technological capacity, or time to prepare for execution. CBP's own budget documents and independent oversight reports make this clear. The agency's FY2024 budget prioritized border security and fentanyl interdiction, leaving little for commercial enforcement at our ports. A 2023 GAO report highlighted long-standing staffing shortages at ports of entry, delays in processing, and inconsistent enforcement of trade rules. In effect, the agency tasked with executing the centerpiece of the administration's economic strategy is being asked to do much more, much faster, with far less than will be required. The bureaucratic bottleneck will hit importers first, with the return of what was seen during the supply chain snarls of Covid, scores of container ships floating just off the U.S. coast as they await the clearing of backlogs at the ports. But importers won't be the only ones to suffer. U.S. businesses, retailers, manufacturers, and supply chain operators that rely on predictable flows of intermediate goods could face sudden delays, confusion, paperwork surges, and inventory gaps. That uncertainty will ultimately impact prices that consumers pay at the register. In short order, global exporters may recognize that the U.S. enforcement architecture is ill-prepared and many may be tempted to game the system or find other tactical workarounds by transshipping through countries with lower "reciprocal" rates wherever possible — causing further delays and losses in projected revenue. That is important. The administration claims the tariffs will raise hundreds of billions of dollars and help offset tax cuts it plans to pass, but if CBP cannot consistently implement the new regime, the revenue projections will miss the mark. Worse, they could be offset by administrative costs, economic distortions, and retaliatory tariffs that hurt U.S. exporters. Even seemingly simple questions — like whether a vehicle assembled in Mexico with Chinese parts qualifies for a blanket or component-based tariff — become minefields in the absence of clearly defined rules. And that's before retaliation starts or exemptions begin to flow in. Some inside the administration do recognize the problem, but are reluctant to speak candidly about the challenge. Ambassador Jamieson Greer at USTR appears to be one of the few officials quietly working to bring order to this increasingly chaotic pace and structure. His background and experience from Trump's first term gives him a modicum of credibility, and his current lowkey efforts to reintroduce process discipline and clarity into the frenetic tariff policy whiplash deserves recognition. But Greer is attempting to systematize a policy environment that is being by driven by fiat and decree, the whims of the man at the top. Greer's work may be thoughtful, but the policy process of this administration, its decision making and implementation architecture is not built to function the way that it has in the past. What's more troubling is the lack of a formal rulemaking process. No discernable public comment period was offered. It is true that IEEPA does not require one, but sound policy, particularly policy with this level of impact, could have used one. There is no visible administrative legal framework beyond citing the provisions of IEEPA that "allow" a president to take "decisive" action, no apparent mechanism for coordinating across the agencies tasked with implementing the details. What we are left with is a policy reliant on signaling over processes and structure, Truth Social post that serve as instructions to those responsible for implementation, and the brute force application of raw power and perceived leverage over realistic and achievable goals and outcomes. Uncertainty itself as the tool may serve the short-term negotiation tactical interests of President Trump, but it's a dangerous foundation for long-term trade policy and its effective implementation. While the executive branch expands its authority, Congress continues to recede into the background. There are, to be fair, rare moments of resistance. Last week, the Senate — with the help of four Republicans (Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski) — voted to terminate Trump's previous national emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking, the legal pretext for imposing a 25% tariff on Canadian imports. That narrow vote was a rare attempt at congressional oversight, an effort to claw back authority that many now realize has been misused or stretched way too far. On Thursday, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), senior members of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation to reaffirm the key role of Congress in U.S. trade policy. But that was the Senate. In the House of Representatives, no such courage has emerged among the Republican leadership. A few congressional members have introduced legislation to rein in the president's power to use a 1930 trade law as the basis for unilateral trade authority. But Speaker Mike Johnson and others in the Republican Party appear unwilling to challenge the executive's expanding use of trade authorities granted to it by Congress, even as the scope and complexity of these tariffs risk spiraling far beyond the federal government's ability to execute on them. The consequences of that passivity are real, in the form of the coming delays at ports, lawsuits by importers, arbitrary or uneven enforcement, and disrupted supply chains — economic dislocation not just for foreign producers, but for the very American manufacturers and workers the policy claims to support. The first real tariffs stress test is now underway. If implementation falters, the economic impact may be less about tariffs themselves and more about the confusion, instability, and the credibility losses that follow. Policy by proclamation is no substitute for execution, and execution, especially at this scale, requires more than belief — it requires institutions that work, systems that are ready, and oversight that functions. Right now, we have neither the capacity nor the clarity to pull this off. Congress has the tools to fix that. But time is running out. —By Dewardric McNeal, Managing Director and Senior Policy Analyst at Longview Global, and a CNBC contributer Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by

USAID team fired while in Myanmar earthquake zone, ex-official says

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 10:20:56

Pope Francis greets crowds at Vatican in first appearance since leaving hospital

Source: {'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'} Published: 2025-04-06 09:50:32

Getting a job is hard. A trade war is only going to make it harder.

Source: {'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'} Published: 2025-04-06 09:18:00

An expanding tariff fight could push the US job market from meh to miserable. Michelle Budnick, a documentary filmmaker in New York, worries that her search will get harder. The 47-year-old has been looking for full-time production work for over two years. Budnick told Business Insider that the uncertainty created by steeper trade barriers — and the attendant specter of weaker consumer spending — will likely further reduce how much companies are willing to spend on production. "It's like pouring tar on top of syrup. We're just going to drown under this," said Budnick, referring to workers like herself in creative fields. While it's too soon to say precisely what economic contrails might become visible across the job market after President Donald Trump's tariff announcement on April 2, economists told Business Insider that uncertainty will likely push some employers to curtail hiring. "It's kind of a frozen market," Andrew Flowers, chief economist at Appcast, told BI. "There's going to be even less hiring and maybe an increase in firing." For months, the prospect of a trade war has sat like unexploded ordnance alongside some companies' business plans. Now that Trump is moving ahead with tariffs, including a baseline 10% levy, the impact could be profound. "We're starting to see maybe more feelings that, 'Hey, this wasn't a negotiation tactic, and that these tariffs are likely here to stay,'" Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told BI. Flowers said that some of the sluggishness that has afflicted white-collar hiring for years could overtake other parts of the job market. He said a few areas that had been strong, like healthcare, are likely to remain so. Yet industries that had been relative bright spots, including retail, transportation and warehousing, and some corners of manufacturing — one purported domestic beneficiary of tariffs — could get whacked, Flowers said. US employers are already bringing on workers at the slowest pace in nearly a decade, Stahle said. On top of that, the number of job postings in the US has declined, he noted. At the end of December, listings had risen to about 12% above their pre-COVID-19 levels, Stahle said. Then, from early January to the end of March, openings drifted downward to about 8.2% above their pre-pandemic levels. Flowers said industries like finance, insurance, tech, and professional services, which he said have been experiencing a "white-collar recession" for two to three years, might not get hit as hard because they're already somewhat weak and because the impact of tariffs might be indirect. One bright spot is that overall layoffs remain low, even with broad cuts in the offing for federal workers. However, Flowers said, the biggest impact on workers could come from lackluster hiring. "There will be job cuts because of these tariffs, but almost proportionally more impactful is the fact that there won't be hiring because of these tariffs," he said. Flowers said in a worst-case scenario, where tariff retaliation spills into a tit-for-tat global trade war, layoffs would be likely. "The steepness of the tariff rates have spooked investors and have spooked business leaders," Flowers said. Any impact will be in addition to the job and spending cuts the White House is attempting to make in government agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency advisory group run by Elon Musk. A White House spokesperson said in a statement to BI that tariffs are a "critical" part of the president's economic agenda. "The administration is also slashing regulations, pushing tax cuts, and unleashing American energy to drive down energy costs — policies that will also usher in economic and job growth as they did during the first Trump presidency," the spokesperson said. Stahle said a greater risk than the hit from tariffs could be the uncertainty they create, especially if that leads businesses to pull back on hiring and spending or pushes consumers to lock away their wallets. "If people are feeling that it's going to absolutely destroy things, and they act off that expectation, it could end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said, referring to the fallout from tariffs. That precarious atmosphere was increasingly evident Friday. The March jobs report showed greater gains in US hiring than forecast, alongside downward revisions to job growth for the start of the year. Yet, global markets plunged for a second day, with the benchmark S&P 500 index losing more than 10% in two days. Many investors are now looking past pre-tariff data points and focusing instead on the prospects for a business environment where global trade might be hemmed in by protectionist tendencies. "Month-old data increasingly feels like ancient history now," Stahle said, referring to the March jobs report. For Budnick, the filmmaker, a key concern is that tariffs could make business owners less willing to spend on the type of content she produces. Already, she's struggled. Prior to February 2023, Budnick hadn't gone without full-time work for a dozen years. "You wonder what the future is going to hold," she said. "Where is this going to go if people cannot support their families?" Do you have a story to share about your job hunt? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com. Jump to

I moved to Thailand and started a business with my husband. When work slows down, we fully embrace island life.

Source: {'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'} Published: 2025-04-06 09:05:00

I'm from Pennsylvania and studied interior design before moving to LA for work. My husband, Justin, is from Chicago and studied architecture before making the same move. We met in 2010 at Walt Disney Imagineering, a segment of The Walt Disney Company that focuses on theme park design. Fifteen years later, we're based in Thailand and run our own business. We love the pace of life in Asia. It was a pivotal moment for us. Not only were we working in a different country, but we could travel all over Asia. We started to find our love for travel and experiencing different Asian cultures, including visiting Thailand several times. We moved back to LA in 2016 but were eager to find a reason to return to Asia. I designed interiors for private jets at Gulfstream in New York City, and Justin designed restaurants in Miami before his job took us to Singapore. We had a lovely life there, especially in terms of safety, efficiency, and cleanliness, but we still hadn't moved on from our US-based corporate lifestyle. We worked around the clock, barely spending much downtime together because it was all about making money to afford to live the Singapore lifestyle. Our condo was nice, but we have a Rottweiler named Raja, and sharing common walls was also hard. We immediately fell in love and began speaking with real estate agents because we wanted to buy a vacation home there. Then, we started thinking about quality of life and our end goal. Did we want to keep climbing the corporate ladder, or focus on our happiness and creative freedom? We live where some of the most recent season of "The White Lotus" was filmed. We love the show and were thrilled to hear that season three was being filmed in Koh Samui. Several of our friends were on set as extras. We can't wait for the finale. It's been exciting to recognize familiar places on the island featured on TV. Our visa is called a 'Smart Visa.' Our program is designed to attract startup entrepreneurs investing in targeted industries. Moving our dog was the most important thing. We'd had support with our relocations to Shanghai and Singapore, but we had to do it ourselves for Thailand. Ever since we decided to move here, we haven't looked back. House hunting in Koh Samui is very different from LA. There's no centralized database; less than 50% of properties are listed online. Many homes are sold through word of mouth. Renovations were difficult, too. Coming from an urban environment with much more routine, structure, and predictability, getting used to doing something on an island can be challenging. The experience made us much more adaptable and flexible. Whereas things in the past may have been frustrating, now we can laugh it off. We took Mandarin lessons when we lived in China and thought they might help, but they've made it more confusing, as some words are similar but have completely different meanings. We want to be conversational in Thai, but English is fairly widespread here. We run a studio called SnobBirds. We work remotely, with most projects based in the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We have a truly flexible schedule and are available for clients whenever they need us. Our work is entirely project-based, so our hours fluctuate. Some weeks are intense (60+ hours), while others are lighter (20 hours). We regularly worked 70-80 hours a week in our corporate jobs. The biggest difference now is control — we choose projects we're passionate about and pass on those that aren't a good fit. When work slows down, we can fully embrace island life. We do a lot of road trips and take the ferry to the mainland to drive into Thailand. Koh Samui is quite diverse. The exposure to the international community is part of what drove us to come to this island because you get a taste of both worlds. We came here because we wanted to experience a new culture and foods and learn a new language. We didn't want to be comfortable. You can get great Thai food for under $10; great seafood along the coast is a little more expensive. The food quality is excellent. However, cheese and imported beer, wine, and spirits are 50% to 75% more expensive. There's also variety, as there's a lot of international food on the island, especially from the expat community. The community is very tight-knit. We don't know many places where you'll shop at the same grocery store in the morning with a local restaurant owner. We bought our house in LA, now a rental, for just over $1M in 2017 by taking out a loan and 30-year mortgage. The house in Koh Samui was one-third the cost, and we purchased it outright with cash in 2023. Our cost of living in Koh Samui is significantly lower since our house is paid off, and we share a car without a car payment. Since we still have our house in California, if we need to split our time more for our business or family, we can. Our families have been great about visiting us and love having the excuse to experience more of Asia. We imagine we'll return home at some point, but there's no end date right now. Jump to

We Went to the Anti-Trump Protests. Here's What Surprised Us the Most.

Source: {'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'} Published: 2025-04-06 01:08:00

Last week, nationwide protests targeted Elon Musk for his role in dismantling government agencies and firing federal workers through the White House DOGE Office. This week, they are targeting the man who gave him that role: President Donald Trump. In coordinated demonstrations that organizers said took place across all 50 states, the "Hands Off!" protest accused Trump and his administration of championing policies that benefit the rich while making life harder for everyone else. Business Insider sent reporters to protests in different parts of the country to hear from them directly. Many said they were most worried about the economy and their retirement investments, which have dwindled in tandem with Trump's tariff announcements. Trump says the tariffs will help jump-start US manufacturing, promote US goods, protect jobs and ultimately create more of them. He has urged Americans to wait out the initial market volatility and price increases. That has, however, so far done little to alleviate fears. Here's what protesters told us and what surprised us the most. As I rode the train from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan, the subway car filled with protesters, their cardboard signs bumping up against umbrellas on a rainy Saturday in New York. By 1 p.m., the 42nd Street station was even more crowded than usual. Older people clutched slippery canes, and young kids clutched their parents' hands. One man wore a once trendy Harris Walz camo hat. Another waved a small American flag, an unusual display of patriotism at anti-Trump rallies. The damp horde of protesters shuffled toward Bryant Park, and in some ways, it all felt familiar. There were chants about abortion, signs featuring the face of now-deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a progressive icon, and a steady cacophony of car horns. But some things were different this time. For one, the crowd looked older, with middle-aged Americans seeming to outnumber the 20-somethings that dominated rallies during the pandemic. It makes sense since many Americans are watching their retirement savings dwindle in the face of crashing markets and worry that staff cuts to the Social Security Administration could impact the crucial safety net. While the anti-government protests held during Trump's first term focused on social issues — like abortion and civil rights issues — many of the signs today targeted the economy. Most of the people I spoke to didn't want to share their last names because they worried about their privacy in the current political environment. Yet they weren't shy about their rage and despair. Dorothy Auer, 62, told me she wished people would get angrier. "I've been working for over 40 years, and I looked at my investments yesterday — my retirement plan — and I literally don't think I'll ever be able to retire," she said, starting to choke up. Wiping her eyes with her free hand — the other held a black and white sign bashing Musk — Auer told me it's distressing to see a man of such wealth "turn around and crap on us." Jian, 33, held a sign that read, "Tariffs are killing my 401(k)," but he told me he's most upset about what's happening to his retired father. "My dad just lost about 25% of his savings in the last three days because of the tariffs," he said. It's not just the economy, of course, that brought thousands of people out to Midtown Manhattan. Penny, 54, said the Trump administration affected virtually every issue she cares about. Even so, we ended up talking about Musk. "I'm horrified that a person who wasn't born here, wasn't elected, seems to be getting carte blanche to do whatever he wants in our government," she said. "How did he get a security clearance?" Most of those I talked to as they slowly trudged toward Madison Square Park didn't think the protest would change Trump's mind. A few said they hoped Congress would pay attention, but more than that, people said they felt they needed to do something. "Even if it's sort of hopeless right now, at least it's showing people that we're here," Pyare, 49, told me. "And that we don't like it." Another week, another protest. On Saturday, I attended the Hands Off! rally in Novi, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where 55% of the vote went to Kamala Harris during the election. Thousands of people showed up. The crowd was emotionally charged and united by the spirit of collective action. Many attendees said they were first-time protesters. The Tesla Takedown protests I attended last weekend seemed somber by comparison. Protesters here got loud. "Call me Old Lady Army Fighting for Democracy," one 66-year-old woman, who didn't want to give her real name, told me. She held up a sign she had made. It was a charcoal drawing of the Statue of Liberty, whose hands covered her eyes in shame. "I just copied this off of Facebook," she said. But to her it symbolized that "everything that our country stands for is being destroyed, and the world is looking at us." Liana Gettel, 58, said she was outraged for several reasons, including the administration's stance on abortion. She said she had an abortion 29 years ago. "I had lost a child. The child would not come out on its own. So I had to have a procedure. Had I not had that procedure, I wouldn't be here," she said. "And that's what they want to block, is things like that?" Protesters targeted many different issues, including abortion, trans, and minority rights. One protester holding up a sign for trans rights said, "Trans people are just the appetizer, but everyone will be on the menu now." The line echoed remarks made by human rights advocate Channyn Lynne Parker at the Rally for Trans Visibility in Chicago last weekend. Unlike protests during Trump's first term, which focused on social issues, however, many people today were also worried about the president's economic policies. Matt Watts said he was protesting Musk's takeover of Social Security and Trump's tariffs on "countries that don't deserve it." After the stock market began to take a hit from all the talk of tariffs, Watts said he took his money out of his 401(k) and invested it into a more stable fund. "I'm getting ready to retire pretty soon. I've got to count on that savings," he said. Most protesters were middle-aged or older, but they captured some younger activists with their energy. Yajat Verma, 18, said he hadn't known about the protest but was driving by with a friend when he saw the crowd. He decided to join in and started handing out water bottles to protesters. "Everyone should be protesting," he said. Protesters crowding together near the San Francisco City Hall had much to be angry about. On one end of the 150,000 square-foot Civic Center Plaza, a man's voice boomed through the microphone about the dangers of fascism and how it was time for people to go "on the offensive." On the other end was Michelle Gutierrez Vo, president of the California Nurses Association, warning folks about Trump's move to strip federal workers of their union rights. With so many grievances against the current administration in the air, some protesters resorted to bullet-point lists of the issues on large signs. That spoke to one of the concerns for Maria, a 67-year-old San Francisco resident who declined to provide her last name. "My focus has been a lot about the environment," Maria told BI, later adding, "There's so much going on right now, but I know it's important to try and stay focused on one thing and hope other people are focused on the other things." Maria's friend chimed in, saying she was worried about her Social Security, which she said she had been paying into for six decades. For Frida Ruiz, 18, a student at the University of San Francisco who held a sign that read "Billionaire Cucks," Trump's stance on immigration hits close to home as a daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. For George Chikovani, a 42-year-old SF resident, who came to protest with his wife Lisa Isola, 40, and their three-year-old and 10-months-old children, his most personal issue was the Ukraine war. "My grandmother is from Ukraine and then I grew up in Georgia, so that cause has felt very personal to me. I still have family and friends there," Chikovani said. At least 7,500 people gathered near city hall on Saturday afternoon, according to an officer with the San Francisco Police Department. As my colleague observed in New York, older millennials and seniors made up large swaths of the crowd. Some came out in full costumes, sticking true to SF's colorful character. Maria, who is also a member of Third Act, a left-leaning political advocacy group focused on mobilizing senior voters, said she was encouraged by people who came out to protest but was "hoping to see more." "We need more younger people to come," she said. Jump to