Rana Foroohar

FT COLUMNIST

The new American flag on the North Lawn of the White House flies at half-staff in honor of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed during an event in Utah, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 14, 2025. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

America risks making frenemies of old allies

Neither re-industrialisation nor US security can be achieved with the current White House approach

U.S. dollar banknote and stock graph are seen in this illustration taken April 25, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The spectre of dollar doomsday still looms

Whatever happens with Trump’s tariffs, investors need to prepare for a new market paradigm

Steel sheets are piled high at Central Steel Supply Company in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Supply-chain independence from China is a stated goal for the Trump administration.  Or, as Trump has said, “If you don’t have steel, you don’t have a country”.
THE BOTTOM LINE

The realpolitik of Trump’s tariffs

The president’s trade policy is about power and security, not economics

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 22: Demonstrators gather for a protest against Elon Musk and electric car maker Tesla on February 22, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. Hundreds rallied at various entrances to the University Village shopping mall, in addition to the Tesla showroom's storefront at the mall.   David Ryder/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by David Ryder / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
THE BOTTOM LINE

What Tesla’s tarnish tells us about America Inc

Elon Musk’s company, like the US itself, seems like a sell

(FILES) Behind bulletproof glass, former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak during a campaign rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina, on November 2, 2024. Buckle up: Donald Trump returns to the White House next week for a second term that promises to be even more volatile -- and hard-line -- than his roller-coaster first presidency. Buoyed by his historic political comeback, the billionaire Republican has shown no sign of changing the bombastic style that shook the United States and the world from 2017 to 2021. (Photo by Peter Zay / AFP)
THE BOTTOM LINE

Trump’s trade challenge

Biden’s parting gift throws down the gauntlet to the incoming president on industrial policy

Donald Trump’s band of techno-libertarians, including Elon Musk (above), believe that they should be left alone to get on with dismantling the apparatus of the state in service to efficiency-building and profit-making.

The return of the techno-libertarians

Silicon Valley billionaires are selling a dream of unfettered markets – but reality is not so certain

America Inc under its brand new CEO Trump feels less like a blue chip and more like a private equity firm: it's a highly leveraged, short-term play with an average hold time of around four years.

America Inc and its new CEO

Has the US now become a distressed asset?

The original focus of the Bretton Woods institutions -- ie the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank -- was supposed to be on people and planet rather than merely price.
THE BOTTOM LINE

Power, as well as price, matters in a well-run economy

That’s the lesson to take from both the founding of the Bretton Woods system 80 years ago and the Biden administration today

August polling showed that Kamala Harris has pulled ahead of Donald Trump in three key Midwestern swing states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
THE BOTTOM LINE

America needs someone to connect the economic dots

Should Kamala Harris be elected, she’ll need to focus on systems thinking

A campaign poster near Somerset ahead of the general election in the United Kingdom. The push and pull of national concerns in regions around the world has replaced a single global “efficiency” paradigm for business.
THE BOTTOM LINE

CEOs in the age of anxiety

Changing concerns and business models demand more sophisticated strategies for regionalisation and de-risking