Mint Quick Edit | Monday’s market mayhem was no surprise
Stock markets crashed on Monday as economic anxiety grew in the wake of America’s tariff blitzkrieg. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tanked 13%, Japan’s Nikkei lost 8%, Europe’s Stoxx 600 was down 5% and India’s BSE Sensex closed almost 3% lower.
Also Read: Trade war: Trump’s shock-and-awe tariffs only have a faint silver lining for India
US President Donald Trump’s comments on Sunday had only added to the worries. “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said, referring to his drastic shift in America’s trade policy.
Also Read: Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs will deal the Global South a hard blow
After decades of keeping its market open, the US is receding behind a protectionist wall. His endgame is far from clear. What has become evident is that Trump wasn’t using tariff threats as a bluff and he is ready to let his country endure the pain of a structural transition.
Ironically, the reaction of traders may not just be driven by fears of near-term implications, but of what all this implies for the long-term, and not just for the US, but for the rest of the world too. China’s retaliatory tariffs and the posturing of others like the EU on hitting back have frayed nerves further.
Also Read: Vivek Kaul: ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid’ is the only way to describe US tariffs
But the great big ponderable is whether this is America’s proverbial “last gasp” as the world’s dominant power. If so, it would impact the whole planet, India included.
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