Donald Trump has been angry about trade for nearly half a century — and throughout all that time, he’s kept on making the same complaint.The problem, he says, is that the US has trade deficits with other countries. He believes that, if we buy more from a country than they buy from us, the other country is “beating” us. And he wants to “beat” them instead.On Sunday, Trump said he’d told foreign leaders seeking tariff relief that “we’re not going to have deficits with your country.” He added: “To me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or at worst, going to be breaking even.”To most in the economic and policy communities, this thinking seems downright bizarre in a way that goes beyond typical protectionism.There’s a range of views on whether the US’s overall trade deficit with the rest of the world is too high, or whether it’s nothing to worry about. There’s also a range of views about whether the US needs to do much more to “decouple” from Chinese manufacturing due to national security concerns, and whether the US should do more to promote manufacturing jobs at home.Trump’s obsession with bilateral trade deficits — his idea that if the US has a trade deficit with any significant trading partner, it is somehow losing — is the really weird thing. But it’s driving his administration’s policy.Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff levels for particular countries were determined, at the president’s request, by the relative size of the trade deficit the US has with each country. That’s why poor countries like Vietnam that have become manufacturing hubs for exports to the US got hit hardest. Trump’s trade deficit obsession also explains why he’s been beating up on allied or friendly countries, like Canada — even though that hurts efforts to build a global coalition against China.Economists have many objections to Trump’s trade deficit fixation. It ignores that Americans benefit from buying things made in other countries. Trump’s thinking is so zero-sum that he ignores that trade can allow countries to specialize and let everyone produce more than they would have otherwise. His trade deficit fixation is specifically about goods, and he regularly ignores numbers showing a big US advantage in exports of services.But let’s put aside those objections and accept at face value Trump’s apparent objective: to get the US to have trade surpluses with as many countries as possible. It may not sound so bad — we’ll just make and sell more stuff, or buy less of their stuff. There are, however, some deeper problems inherent in this concept.The problems with Trump’s trade deficit strategyIn theory, there are two ways the US can reduce its bilateral trade deficit with a particular country. We can increase our exports to that country, or we can decrease our imports from that country. Trump hopes his tariffs can make one or both of these happen. Tariffs make imports from other countries more expensive, meaning, in theory, Americans will buy less of them. His hope is that, with foreign goods newly expensive, we will begin manufacturing more things at home again — both for our own use, and to be exported and sold abroad.But things are not exactly so simple, and such a strategy will face several problems.1) The supply chain problem: Supply chains are globally interconnected, so US-based manufacturers currently use many imported parts and materials to make their products. Those parts and materials are now being hit by Trump’s tariffs, and getting more expensive. So the price of the US-made products will go up too.It’s unclear how the math for all this will shake out. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said last week that he’d spoken to a US car company that told him that the tariffs on all their imported parts might actually hurt them more than foreign car companies hit with a singular tariff on US car sales.Trump is aware of this concern, and in 2020 he mused that he wants all supply chains to be in the US, which would make the country fully independent of the global trading system. That would be even more massively disruptive, difficult, and expensive — bringing a truly monumental shock to the economy and a collapse of Americans’ living standards.2) The workforce problem: If the US is suddenly going to start manufacturing many more things that we currently buy abroad, a lot more people are going to work in manufacturing. And not just of cars and high-end electronics — we’re talking garments, toys, and simpler appliances like toasters. (As well as agricultural products, since tariffs are being put on those imports too.)Who is going to work in all these manufacturing jobs? It isn’t meant to be unauthorized immigrants, since in theory they are being deported. Generally, if a company has trouble attracting workers, it would have to offer higher wages. But the more a company spends on labor costs, the more it will have to raise prices, which will make US exports less competitive. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested robots will simply do much of the US manufacturing work. That reminds me of the joke about how the economist stranded on a desert island would open a can: He’d just say, “assume I had a can opener.” Lutnick is assuming many highly advanced robots.3) The confidence problem: If the US president set new high tariff levels and could guarantee that they were permanent, that could be very economically damaging, but at least businesses would be able to plan accordingly. Trump’s chaotic policy rollout, and its reliance on poor-quality analysis, has only deepened uncertainty about market conditions in the US in the future. And if businesses feel uncertain — and like Trump can and will throw their business model into chaos on a whim — they’re going to delay making big new investments in US-based manufacturing.4) The currency problem: A major factor affecting the strength of any country’s exports is the strength of that country’s currency. Currently, the US has a strong dollar. That strong dollar is good for Americans purchasing lots of foreign-made goods — but it makes it more expensive for foreigners to purchase US-made goods.This is why some Trump policy rationalizers, like Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran, have previously argued that the ultimate endgame of Trump’s trade war has to be a global accord to weaken the value of the dollar. Before joining Trump’s administration, Miran wrote a paper theorizing that such a global agreement could be called the “Mar-a-Lago Accord.” But Trump himself has said conflicting things about whether he’d like the dollar to be strong or weak. And will Americans actually be happy about getting a weaker currency that will reduce their ability to purchase foreign-made things?See More:

Nintendo doesn't tend to add a number to its consoles, and it's now been revealed that the Switch 2 system almost had a very different name that fans had joked about years agoTech10:38, 09 Apr 2025Will Switch 2 be 'Super'?(Image: PA)At a special Nintendo Direct event on April 2, the company finally revealed the Switch 2. Alongside the console's specs, we got confirmation that Switch 2 will be able to play upgraded versions of existing Switch games, Mario Kart World will cost a whopping £75, and what that mysterious 'C' button does.In fact, one of the things that wasn't a surprise was the console's name (having been revealed all the way back in January), but as covered in an "Ask the Developer" interview, the Switch 2 was almost called something very different – something fans had suspected years ago.‌Article continues belowHere's all we learned.Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are now open at most UK online stores(Image: AFP via Getty Images)Asked how the team came to call the console by its name, Switch 2 Producer Kouichi Kawamoto revealed it could have been called the Super Nintendo Switch.‌"There were a lot of ideas for the name, and we really struggled to find the right one," he admitted."We even considered ideas like “Super Nintendo Switch.” However, Super NES, which came out after the NES, couldn’t play NES games."Since Switch 2 can play Switch games, it didn't feel right to use the same naming convention as Super NES. Switch 2 is a new system with improved performance, but we'd like players who get their hands on it not to focus on the specs, but rather to think of it as the latest system developed by Nintendo.‌"So, in the hope that it becomes the new standard for Nintendo Switch, we named it Nintendo Switch 2."The console launches on June 5Reddit threads dating back years had the Switch's successor pegged as being the Super Nintendo Switch, but it's interesting to hear how Nintendo came to the decision.‌Fans will remember there being some confusion over the naming of the Nintendo Wii, but it went on to sell by the bucketload until everyone and their Nan was playing bowling in their living room.Its successor, the Wii U, was a big disappointment, with some industry commentators putting its lack of success down to confusion about whether it was a new console or just a super-charged Wii – so it's perhaps not too much of a surprise to see Nintendo go all-in with the big number in the console's name.It also acts as a fun reminder that naming a console isn't as easy as it seems – unless you're Sony, of course.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

Why Nintendo games never see a price cut explained: ‘This isn’t Ubisoft’ Adam Starkey Published April 9, 2025 11:17am Updated April 9, 2025 11:17am Mario Kart World – don’t expect to see a price cut (Nintendo) Former Nintendo employees have revealed the company’s approach to pricing their games, amid the furore around the cost of Switch 2 titles. Last week’s Nintendo Switch 2 blowout may have delivered big game reveals and other surprises, but the conversation around the console since has been dominated by the price of its games. While the console is priced fairly reasonably at £395.99, the £74.99 physical price for Mario Kart World has become a bone of contention. The conversation around the issue has been amplified by US President Donald Trump’s recent wave of tariffs, which caused Nintendo to delay pre-orders in the US and Canada, as it assesses the possibility of a price increase for the hardware. The outrage around Mario Kart World’s price partially stems from how Nintendo rarely reduces the price of its games after launch. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, former employees at Nintendo have provided insight into the company’s rationale on the topic. Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, who previously worked at Nintendo as PR managers for over 10 years, discussed Nintendo’s approach to pricing games on the Kit & Krysta podcast, where they described the company as the polar opposite to other publishers like Ubisoft. ‘We did see, in the last stretch of our tenure at Nintendo, them get really obsessed and fixated on the value of the Nintendo product,’ Ellis said. ‘We would sometimes get approached, like ‘Can we do a giveaway of this product? Can we get five copies and we’ll do a giveaway to our community’. And if we’d ever take those [requests] to Japan for example, for them to consider it, we would often get a long lecture – especially in the last couple of years that we were there, like: ‘Nintendo products have immense value, we must always respect that immense value’. He added: ‘This is why these things don’t go on sale. The value is the value and we [Nintendo] are seriously into that concept of ‘respect the value of what this thing is that we have made, because it is very special.’ Ellis then joked, ‘This isn’t Ubisoft’, as Yang replied: ‘It’s not like the Ubisoft situation where I always tell myself, ‘If I wait a month, will this get cheaper?’ As a Nintendo customer, fan, I feel like all of us are conditioned to [be like], ‘If I want to buy this, I might as well buy this now, because it’s not going to go on sale’.’ ‘It’s a Nintendo tax,’ Ellis added. ‘You could always say, them looking at it [like], ‘what we made was $60. A lot of those other games that are $60 are junk. They don’t have the Nintendo level of quality or polish or attention, so we do need to distinguish how premium this thing is through the pricing, and you will come to understand that’.’ Prior to the Switch generation, Nintendo used to discount its best-selling games after a few years through the Player’s Choice or Nintendo Selects label. It’s unclear why this stopped after the Wii U and 3DS consoles, but this renewed focus on ‘Nintendo value’ might have something to do with it. Even before that though Nintendo has been worried about the general value of video games becoming devalued, with former president Satoru Iwata warning that the rise of mobile games was in danger of making it seems as if no title was worth more than a few pounds. And that was before the advent of live service games. ‘If you lower the price over time, the manufacturer is conditioning the customer to wait for a better deal,’ said Iwata in the book As Iwata by Hobonichi. ‘Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m against lowering prices entirely, but ‘I’ve always wanted to avoid a situation where the first people to step up and support us feel punished for paying top dollar.’ The Ubisoft comparison is apt because the company seems to have fallen into exactly the trap that Iwata describes, as most gamers now expect their games to be heavily discounted after only a few months. This came to a head with Star Wars Outlaws, which was released only a few months before Black Friday – when it did indeed see substantial discounts. More Trending The game’s relative failure partially contributed to the company’s current financial turmoil, although Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which launched last month, has performed much better. To hammer the point home, Star Wars Outlaws, which launched in August last year, is currently 50% off on the PlayStation Store seven months later. By comparison, most Nintendo Switch first party games are still the same price they were eight years ago, which has done nothing to hurt their sales given Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, is one of the best-selling video games of all time, with close to 70 million copies sold. If you’re looking to pick up Mario Kart World at a cheaper price, your best bet is the £429.99 Switch 2 bundle with a digital copy of the game. Pre-orders are up now at select retailers, with the console set to launch on June 5, 2025. The Switch 2 launches in June (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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OLA Palermo Mixed Use Project/ ODASave this picture!© Alan Karchmer•Buenos Aires, Argentina Architects: ODA Area Area of this architecture project Area:  160000 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025 Photographs Photographs:Alan KarchmerMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Buenos Aires -- ODA is proud to announce the unveiling of its first large-scale mixed-use project in Buenos Aires: OLA Palermo. ODA is converting a decaying parking structure into a public park and Class A office building, replacing the concrete shell with cafés, restaurants, retail, an open-air promenade, offices, and a sheltered parking lot. Located in between the racecourse and the popular park "El Rosedal de Palermo," OLA Palermo will act as an iconic new civic space and an important point of connectivity for the city, re-linking the area that today finds itself divided by this very land plot.Save this picture!Save this picture!The government of the City of Buenos Aires granted the concession of the property known as Ámbito Gigena, for a period of 15 years to the developer BSD Investments. "We have an abandoned concrete infrastructure that does not speak at all with its surroundings nor is useful for the city and its inhabitants," explained the architect and urban planner Álvaro García Resta, secretary of Urban Development of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. For this reason, the goal is to transform the three-story building into a "multi-purpose development."Save this picture!Save this picture!Capitalizing on the unique location situated on the edge of the active park, the adaptive reuse project completes the park loop by carrying the green path up the side of the building to the landscaped roof and ramping down the other side, connecting back to the park. The rooftop provides a continuation of the public park, complimented by a commercial brewery, as well as private terraces for office tenants, positioning the project as a key juxtaposition of the public and surroundings, creating organic curves that erode away the edges of the existing parking structure.Save this picture!"This project is a great example of a public-private partnership to create a truly unique typology that will benefit the city and its citizens for decades to come," said ODA founder Eran Chen. "These types of partnerships are the future. It's ambitious and takes bravery and bold leadership on all fronts, but when this is completed we will have a park that will become an icon for the city, and quite possibly the coolest office building in the southern hemisphere."Save this picture!Save this picture!This sustainable design recycles 80% of the original structure to create 160,000 square feet of building that bridges the two previously separated neighborhoods. Gigena will include more than 40,000 SF of public terrace and open green spaces carved with pedestrian paths and a 250-car park. The ultimate work and meeting place, the building offers 360-degree views with easy access to the main highway, making it an easy commute and desirable destination.Save this picture!Last year, the Buenos Aires head of government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, toured the site with García Resta and the Minister of Economic Development and Production, José Luis Giusti. OLA Palermo is named after the Argentine jockey Gigena, who died while running a race in 1912. "The treatment given to these open-air gardens is that of a wild landscape with native flora. But it won't be a park made to contemplate, it will be a dynamic area, to stroll and explore ", says García Resta, "The healthiest city is that which has a balanced mixed use of its public space. Where only one thing happens and not many, the number of people making use of these shared spaces is restricted."Save this picture!Save this picture!The design team includes ODA as design architect, with Aisenson studio as executive architect, ODA and Inscape Landscape as landscape architects, BSD Investments, a renowned developer with projects in Argentina and the United States, and Coinsa, a leading firm with a proven track record in Argentina of more than 7,000,000 SF built work.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this office MaterialsGlassConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on April 09, 2025Cite: "OLA Palermo Mixed Use Project/ ODA" 09 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028842/ola-palermo-mixed-use-project-oda&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Are you joining the bandwagon of canceling subscription services this year? Awesome. We found a lifetime cloud storage solution that replaces your pricey Google Drive or Dropbox subscription fees with a one-time payment! Instead of paying $10+ every single month, you’ll pay just once to own 2TB of storage for life with FolderFort. Normally, this cloud storage deal costs $229.99, but this week, you can get it for just $109.97 with code SECURE2TB at checkout. That means it’ll pay for itself in less than a year. Get to know your new cloud space FolderFort offers the same core functions as most cloud services: upload your files, photos, or videos via your web browser, then access them from any device. The only big difference is that it doesn’t require a monthly or yearly payment plan—just one low price for lifetime access.  For the data-hungry: 2TB of cloud storage translates to roughly 400,000 images, 600 hours of HD video, or over two million documents (depending on file size). You’ll likely run out of things to upload before you run out of storage. FolderFort also includes collaborative tools that grant you access to specific folders and files. It even gives each person you invite 1GB of their own private storage—handy for teams, families, or shared projects. If you want to cut out a subscription fee forever, you need this FolderFort 2TB lifetime subscription. Get it while it’s $109.97 with code SECURE2TB at checkout (reg. $229.99). StackSocial prices subject to change. FolderFort 2TB Cloud Storage Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription See Deal What makes this deal special Cloud storage subscriptions are notoriously sticky—once you’re invested in a platform like Google Drive or Dropbox, switching feels like a chore. But this lifetime cloud storage plan offers a rare opportunity to break free without sacrificing functionality. For less than a year’s worth of fees elsewhere, you get permanent access to 2TB of space you own outright. It’s a smart long-term investment that finally makes escaping the monthly payment loop practical.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01041-yThe US is against the world on sustainable development

A scientist who was working on plague-causing bacteria caught the disease despite using weakened strains that were deemed noninfectious.

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