“’Tariff’ may be the most beautiful word in Donald Trump’s dictionary. And while tariffs will continue to dominate headlines for the rest of the year, let me introduce my economic term of the summer: Power Play. Fighting to be heard: it’s the new summer power play. Some might call it ’blackmail’. It’s August, so our regular ING Monthly is shorter than normal, and while so many people are at the beach or in the mountains, there’s no break from the trade and tariff saga. Mind you, seemingly hard deadlines are proving to be more flexible than initially thought. Since ’Liberation Day’, we have seen numerous deadlines for US trading partners to comply with American demands. However, the consequences of non-compliance remain ambiguous. Despite the flexibility of these initially strict deadlines, it would be a mistake to assume that ’Trump Always Chickens Out,’ as financial markets have described the pattern of tough words followed by soft actions.”
Morten W. Langer
