Trumponomics

US President Donald Trump’s administration said it’s still finalizing plans to unveil what could be a barrage of new tariffs on America’s trading partners around the world. Trump contends he is waging his global trade war to fix a system he considers unfair to the US. On this week's Trumponomics podcast, we’re going to look at this strategy. But rather than analyze the potential economic impact, we instead look at how the world arrived at this moment. Host Stephanie Flanders is joined by Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. They discuss whether the countries now in the firing line of America’s tariffs (and primed to retaliate in kind) should have seen Trump’s trade war coming. They also explore how the trade imbalances the US administration is targeting aren’t an accident and can potentially lead to an unstable global economy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With President Donald Trump firing independent regulators and killing off advisory committees, David Wilcox, director of US economic research for Bloomberg Economics, and editor Molly Smith discuss why data on the world's largest economy may be next. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomberg Economics Chief Economist Tom Orlik explores the possibility that the Trump administration is being more strategic than it seems. Orlik offers some historical perspective on Trump’s moves and whether—despite all of the damage inflicted over the past two months—this bumpy road may still take the economy to a better long-term destination. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we try to understand Stephen Miran’s world view and what it could mean for currencies and the global economic order. Host Stephanie Flanders is joined by Shawn Donnan, senior writer for economics with Bloomberg, and Mark Sobel, the US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Instead of the “Trump bump” we were talking about at the beginning of the year, a combination of mass terminations across the federal government (many of which may be illegal), sweeping tariffs and a whole lot of uncertainty could be leading to a Trump slump. Or is it, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reassured us this week, just a period of transition? That’s the question we tackle on this episode of Trumponomics. Host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Evercore ISI’s Kathryn Holston, who served as a White House senior economist last year and before that in the office of the chief economist of the World Bank, and Anna Wong, chief US economist for Bloomberg Economics. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Joshua Green, national correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek, and editor Laura Davison about the likelihood of a shutdown, its consequences for the government and for Americans—and whether anything can stop Musk’s efforts to shrink the government. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just as it took the British government a century to catch up to Jonathan Swift’s innovative person-to-person loan program, the U.S. government has been slow to react to crypto, creating bureaucratic and legal hurdles to growth in the industry. But with a new administration and a new Congress, the industry now feels there’s reason to be optimistic that regulatory clarity, and a new chapter in the story of crypto in America, is beginning. This episode is sponsored by Coinbase. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One month in, Wall Street’s view on Donald Trump is evolving. Guest host Nancy Cook, Bloomberg’s senior national political correspondent, speaks with chief Wall Street correspondent Sridhar Natarajan and finance reporter Hannah Levitt about how finance executives are feeling now. “There is still broadly this palpable optimism,” says Levitt, “but it’s a bit more caveated.” Levitt and Natarajan explain those caveats, discussing what the likelihood of higher volatility throughout Trump’s second term means for the bottom lines of big Wall Street firms and unpack why a deregulatory agenda might have unforeseen consequences. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to end Russia’s war on Ukraine in a day. Weeks into his presidency, that hasn’t happened. Now his decision to start negotiations with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin while demanding Europe bear the brunt of future aid to Ukraine has been met with shock—but not surprise. In a bonus episode of Trumponomics, recorded at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, we discuss the cost of Trump’s about-face on American commitments and whether a continent beset by fiscal constraints and political division can go it alone. Alberto Nardelli, Bloomberg’s correspondent-at-large for Europe, and Antonio Barroso, senior geoeconomics analyst for Europe at Bloomberg Economics join host Stephanie Flanders. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bill Dudley, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and former New York Federal Reserve Bank president, and Bloomberg Economics Chief US Economist Anna Wong join Stephanie Flanders to discuss the Treasury secretary’s plan to reduce the deficit and its collision with economic reality. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a live taping before an audience in New York, host Stephanie Flanders was joined by Bloomberg political correspondent Nancy Cook and Bloomberg Opinion Senior Executive Editor Tim O’Brien to unpack the way in which US President Donald Trump is making tariff decisions during his chaotic first few weeks in office, whether he has a plan and who his most influential advisers might be. For the second part of the conversation, Bloomberg TV anchor Katie Greifeld and senior editor Ed Harrison discuss how Trump’s economic policy is causing uncertainty among business leaders and why a key metric to look at is the 10-year Treasury rate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we ask what it is exactly US President Donald Trump may be trying to accomplish with his tariff threats and trade wars. Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of government and economics, is joined by Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics, and Bloomberg reporter Shawn Donnan, who covers economics and trade policy, to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s Trumponomics, we look at how Trump's immigration policies will affect the nation’s economy, and especially whether it will be good or bad for American workers. Oren Cass, joins host Stephanie Flanders and Bloomberg Opinion Senior Executive Editor Tim O’Brien. Cass, formerly with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and founder of the conservative think-thank American Compass, is author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, once a hub of globalism and progressive ideals, is now seeing a shift towards embracing the ideology of US President Donald Trump. With CEOs and other business leaders trying to get in line with his views, many are abandoning previous initiatives around equality, diversity, free trade and climate change. On this week’s episode of Trumponomics, we discuss how and why so many of the global elite at Davos are pressing “unsubscribe” on their previous commitments in favor of (like Trump’s book) the art of dealing with the new White House occupant. In a live taping before an audience at Bloomberg House in Davos, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait, Washington reporter Jenny Leonard and Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Brad Stone. They unpack how the world order has already changed in anticipation of Trump’s return, what the Republican’s style of transactionalism will look like for foreign policy, and what will be the fallout for the global economy and trade policy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bond market investors have been extremely busy so far this year, pushing up the cost of government borrowing—especially in the US but also around the world. On this, the inaugural episode of Trumponomics, we look at whether recent moves in the bond market are worrying the incoming Trump administration, what effect they will have on a narrowly-split Congress and whether concerns on Capitol Hill may put some of Donald Trump’s agenda at risk. Host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of government and economics, is joined by Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics (she’s worked at the Federal Reserve and in the first Trump administration), and Bloomberg managing editor for US economic policy Kate Davidson. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To help you plan for Trump's singular approach to economics, Bloomberg presents Trumponomics, a weekly podcast focused on the Trump administration's economic policies and plans. Editorial head of government and economics Stephanie Flanders will be joined each week by reporters in Washington D.C. and Wall Street to examine how Trump's policies are shaping the global economy and what on earth is going to happen next. New episodes on Wednesdays. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're back with a bonus episode of Voternomics for your holiday listening. We're tackling the question: what markets might be getting wrong about the President Elect's return to the White House? Stephanie speaks with Anna Wong, Chief US Economist for Bloomberg Economics and Josh Green, National Correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On our final episode of Voternomics, Peter Turchin, author of End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration, joins Bloomberg head of government and economics coverage Stephanie Flanders, The Readout newsletter’s Allegra Stratton and Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adrian Wooldridge with some sobering predictions for America’s future. Flanders, Stratton and Wooldridge also reflect on the major themes observed during this year of elections, including how it was a bad year for incumbents, how inflation and the legacy of the Covid pandemic factored into voting decisions, whether technology and artificial intelligence were major factors in campaign success or failures, and whether in the end, during a year when more than 40 national elections took place, democracy prevailed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Touted as a potential prime minister not long ago, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's star has been falling fast of late. Some of the blame can be placed on inflation hovering at a 40-year high and embarrassing headlines about his rich wife's taxes. To resurrect his political career, Sunak may want to help Britons out of their financial funk while persuading them he's not disastrously out of touch. Sunak tells Stephanie how the UK government is trying to alleviate the pain inflicted by 9% inflation. It's providing about £350 ($431) in energy bill discounts to families while also providing families with about £100 in relief by cutting fuel duties. Still, the efforts may be too little too late, as the average family is seeing a £2,100 increase in its cost of living, according to Bloomberg estimates. It didn't help matters that Sunak's wife, Akshata Murthy, daughter of an Indian billionaire, was forgoing paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings, which while technically legal is arguably terrible politics. "I do think part of being a good husband is not presuming to dictate to my wife what to do, because she's an independent person and I support her decisions,'' Sunak says. Also, in a discussion from Bloomberg's New Economy Gateway Latin America forum in Panama City, Panama, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaks about troubling abuses in Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti, as well as efforts to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for war crimes in Ukraine. Finally, she calls the potential end of federal abortion rights in the US a "massive setback for women's rights." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The old axiom about the sins of the father being visited upon their children got a shocking rebuttal this week, when Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won a landslide victory in the Philippines's presidential election. Whether Marcos will embrace progressive economic and social values or take after his father, the late dictator and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos, is anyone's guess. Singapore-based Bloomberg Opinion columnist Daniel Moss explains how the younger Marcos deftly sidestepped press interviews and avoided revealing any policy preferences during his campaign. That ambiguity and a strong social media strategy helped to "if not erase, then dilute the memory of his father's period for a huge chunk of voters,'' Moss tells host Stephanie Flanders. Marcos comes into power at a precarious time. The Philippine economy has been far more robust than those of its neighbors, but its embrace of Chinese investment could backfire if China's economy continues to decline. In a second segment, Bloomberg's chief U.S. economist, Anna Wong, explains how China's slowdown might provide at least a little relief to the US's inflation woes. And, Rome-based economy reporter Alessandra Migliaccio takes listeners to bucolic Trevinano, Italy, where local leaders hope an injection of money from the European Union will help turn the hamlet into a center for tourists and artisans and stem years of depopulation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.