by Richard Schulman Three exemplary government actions took place in the past week — two by the Trump administration and one by Indonesia’s Transportation Safety Committee. First, the Trump administration and Pentagon awarded a lucrative and security-critical cloud storage contract to Microsoft rather than Jeff Bezos’s Amazon-Washington Post enterprise, which has been a repeat conduit […]
US imposes new tariffs on EU over Airbus subsidies
The weekly report of our trade correspondent, L.C. On October 18th, the US imposed tariffs of 10% and 25% on imports from the European Union. This ratcheting up of global trade war had been expected, given that no serious talks for a negotiated solution to the US-EU aircraft subsidies dispute occurred. The dispute has been […]
The US still has no well-thought-out Mideast policy
by Richard Schulman Strong differences among policy professionals regarding President Trump’s precipitous withdrawal of US protection of its Kurdish allies underlines the fact that the administration has no well-thought-out Mideast policy. Indeed, confusion and recriminations are now widespread within the administration itself, the US military, congressional Republicans, and the general public. The White House is […]
Trump ok’s small China trade deal but Hong Kong wants US guarantees
The weekly trade report by L.C. US and Chinese negotiators reached – by the US account – a limited, partial trade agreement when they met in Washington on October 11th for their 13th negotiating round. As President Trump told reporters, “We’ve come to a very substantial phase one deal, subject to getting it written.” He […]
What should have happened in Syria
by Richard Schulman President Trump is meritoriously fulfilling a campaign pledge to exit the US from Mideast engagements in Syria, but he could perhaps have done this in a way that was protective of our Kurdish allies, acceptable to our Turkish allies, and beneficial to US honor and reputation. The US would have come out […]
