Happy Thursday. This week, a man who took satisfaction in an insurrection against the US on his behalf became the 47th US president. His sidekick, the world’s richest man, dabbled in fascist-style salutations. Apart from that, how is everyone feeling?

A lot of fearful attention is being paid to what Donald Trump might do with tariffs. Rightly so; he is, after all, the self-declared “tariff man” (on which, do listen to Alan Beattie’s podcast interview with tariff guru Doug Irwin). But there is a risk of being all-consumed by trade policy when there are many other economic challenges on the way.

Already, Trump has fired a few shots across the world’s bows concerning economic matters that were hardly debated in the months before his return to the White House. By executive order, he has jettisoned (the US’s participation in) the global deal on multinational corporate taxation that his first administration did a very good job of advancing. Too few paid attention to the signs, although his nominee for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, railed against the deal in his appointment hearing. Trump himself now vows retaliation against countries that push ahead with taxing US multinationals’ profits in their territories.