Publications, Insights, & News

If there’s one trend that’s really here to stick around, it’s social media. I imagine the reason for this is because at heart, human beings are social creatures who enjoy interacting with each other. Social media brings a whole new dimension to these interactions: the dimension of convenience. People can connect with their loved ones all over the world while never having to leave their chair. It’s less costly than using the phone, faster than writing a letter, and more versatile than email.

Please open your economic textbooks to page forty-seven, class, because it's time to talk about something you probably haven't thought of since college: tariffs. On Thursday, March 1, President Trump announced a new plan to institute a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum. (1) Like so many things these days, the response was radically different depending on who you talk to. More on that in a moment.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do."

By now, you've seen the headlines, full of scary-sounding words like rout and storm, plunge and crash. Whatever you want to call it, investors have certainly endured a rough time over the past few days. The Dow, dominating the media's coverage as usual, dropped more than 600 points on February 2, and almost 1,200 points on February 5.1 That's a single-day decline of 4.6%, the largest since 2011.1 The other major indexes were shaky, too.

I'd like to tell you a fable that makes a true point. Once upon a time, some eminent scientists developed an interest in the bumblebee. (Let's make them actual rocket scientists, at NASA.) They hoped the tiny insect held some secrets of flight that could be applied to shuttles re-entering the atmosphere.

Every January, it's customary to look back at the year that was. What were the highlights? What were the "lowlights"? What were the events we'll always remember? Most importantly, what did we learn?