By Lauren Young
NEW YORK – This was originally published in the On The Money newsletter, where we share U.S. personal finance tips and insights every other week. Sign up here to receive it for free.
“The Entire World is RIPPING US OFF!!!” U.S. President Donald Trump recently wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Last week, Trump threatened to slap a 200% tariff on wine, cognac and other alcohol imports from Europe, opening a new front in a global trade war that is roiling financial markets and raising recession fears.
Those tumbling stock markets along with signs of tightening credit may make the Federal Reserve’s job even more difficult this week as U.S. central bank policymakers try to weigh whether consumer spending will suffer as households take stock of the potential blow to their net worth and greater difficulty in obtaining loans.
What do you think? Is a recession in sight? Or is the economy on the right path? Share your comments at .
How to age wisely
How long will I live? Will I be healthy? Will I lose my memory? How long will I work? Will I have enough money? Where will I live? How will I die?
Last week I attended a talk at SXSW with Debra Whitman, who is the author of The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 big Questions of Midlife and Beyond and chief public policy officer at AARP.
Whitman started her conversation with another question: What word comes to mind when you think of aging?
Just two people in the audience of about 30 people had a “positive” word to share. (Guess who was one of them? Me! My word was “wise.”)
And here is a fun fact: People who report positive age beliefs early on live an average 7.5 years longer than those with more negative beliefs.
What word do you think of when it comes to aging? Write to me at .
Read, watch and listen
Gates warns White House he can’t fill shortfalls in US global health funding
“Bull crash” drives biggest-ever drop in US equity allocation
Why financial warfare could backfire on the US
Cockroaches and working in a closet: Inside Trump’s return-to-office order
Have you received student-loan forgiveness? Plan now to avoid a tax bomb (WSJ)
Tesla’s stock defied gravity for years. Is Elon Musk’s EV party over?
UK statisticians add VR headsets to inflation basket, cut newspaper ads
Trump says a recession might be worth the cost. Economists disagree (NYT)
Businesses sound alarm as Trump tariff chaos hits the economy
Fintechs and crypto companies seek bank charters for growth
Video of the week
Rotation away from U.S. equities may continue. President Trump’s escalating trade war may damage U.S. growth, the OECD warned – after a week that saw the S&P 500 slide into a correction.
Josh Passmore of Artemis says investors may continue to pivot away from the United States. Watch here.
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Egg and booze watch
For the third week in a row, my local Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn was sold out of eggs.
Even if you can find eggs, there is a good chance they are more expensive. Wholesale egg prices surged 53.6% in February.
No wonder the United States is importing more eggs from countries such as Mexico and Brazil while asking Europe for help to ease the egg shortage.
On the booze front, the threat of U.S. tariffs is prompting businesses and consumers to stockpile tequila, which can only be made in Mexico. Spirits companies are also freezing expansion plans and diverting resources elsewhere.
Mexico also is the third-largest importer of U.S. barley and the biggest importer of U.S. malt, which is made from germinating kernels of barley. (Malt is a key ingredient in beer.)
If Mexico issues tariffs in retaliation or switches to buying barley from other trading partners, experts say it could deal another economic blow to American farmers as U.S. consumers increasingly ditch beer.
Are proposed tariffs changing your buying habits? Have you stocked up on tequila or any other foreign goods? Let me know at .
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(Reporting by Lauren Young)
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