Tariffs Are Tip of the Iceberg for Panicked CEOs: Lionel Laurent

The day after Donald Trump’s election victory, I listened over breakfast to a European chief executive’s prediction of the boom that would follow: More deals and more investment would head to the US in anticipation of more growth; the Old Continent, stuck in a productivity and demographic tailspin, would struggle to close the gap.

Ten weeks into Trump’s second term, with trade-war fears surging as the US imposes tariffs on trading partners around the world, that memory feels like a parallel universe. Corporate America is hoarding cash, not splurging it. The dollar has fallen against major currencies, and the S&P 500 is ...