While the United States and most of the European Union have shrugged off the pandemic recession and restarted their economic engines, Germany remains idled. Its economy shrank slightly in 2024, after adjusting for rising prices. Forecasts for this year don’t look much better. And other measures look even worse. They show an economy rapidly sliding…
It took Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada just minutes to tap out his reaction to his nation’s victory over the United States in an international hockey championship final on Thursday in Boston. “You can’t have our country — and you can’t take our game,” Mr. Trudeau wrote on X. Ahead of the match, the…
Friedrich Merz, the man favored to be Germany’s next chancellor after elections on Sunday, is a conservative businessman who has never been a government minister and was forced out of party leadership years ago for challenging Angela Merkel. As a Christian Democrat and committed trans-Atlanticist, he has been considered a potentially better match for President…
European defense stocks continued their rally on Tuesday, as President Trump’s threats to reduce American military support to the continent and NATO raised the prospect that Europe’s governments will increase military spending. The flurry of trading helped push the Pan-European Stoxx 600 index to a record high; the Stoxx Europe Total Market Aerospace & Defense…
President Trump’s readiness to use coercive tariffs presents a profound threat to the postwar economic and political order, introducing an unpredictability to global commerce that makes it difficult for trade partners to know how to react — and next to impossible for businesses to plan. But he is not the only danger the world economy…
President Trump reportedly wants to visit China within his first 100 days in office. While the White House has not yet announced any details, planning for the trip may already be underway. The Chinese leadership under President Xi Jinping is unlikely to agree to a date until it is confident of a positive outcome, and…
Another week, and another round of tariff threats and annexation suggestions from President Trump. It began with the announcement of a policy imposing 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. In Canada’s case, those tariffs would be stacked on top of the previously introduced 25 percent tariffs on most Canadian exports, which are…
Elon Musk’s growing power in government appears to be making some of his businesses more of a magnet for investors. Case in point: Banks have managed to sell off most of the $12.5 billion worth of debt owed by X, his social network, to eager buyers. Investors are essentially betting that the company’s future is…
President Trump is pursuing a far more aggressive trade policy than he embraced in his first term, allowing his unfettered instincts about how to put America at the forefront to guide him with little pretense of investigations or extended deliberations. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has threatened tariffs on goods from potentially every global trading…
Hours after President Trump paved the way for upending the United States’ trade relationship with India with broad “reciprocal” tariffs, he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a united front during a news conference on Thursday at the White House. Mr. Modi became the latest head of state to seek to placate an increasingly power-flexing…