Trump’s Tariffs, Market Panic and What Comes Next
About this episode
Recorded April 9 as markets convulsed after Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, this episode asks what markets, CEOs, and boards are actually seeing. Orszag explains that markets hate uncertainty above all: corporate decision-making froze, and unusually, U.S. Treasury yields rose during the panic — a tremor in the supposedly safe base asset of the global financial system that forced Trump's 90-day pause. He discusses Stephen Miran's framework for remaking the global trading system (the 'Mar-a-Lago Accord' idea), the Triffin dilemma and the costs and benefits of the dollar's reserve-currency status, and the discredited Washington Consensus on free trade. Orszag's verdict: companies will wait out the uncertainty, tariff policy cannot restore 1950s manufacturing employment, and what matters more is who owns AI and the digital payments stack — where China is far ahead.