Rana Foroohar

FT COLUMNIST

In the current age of great power conflict, the US desperately needs solid allies to help it re-industrialise and counter both China’s economic and political influence and Russia’s growing aggression in Europe.

America risks making frenemies of old allies

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

We are heading to a multipolar world in which the US dollar and dollar assets are no longer the only game in town.

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”.
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The realpolitik of Trump’s tariffs

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

Demonstrators gather at a protest against Elon Musk and Tesla in February in Seattle. Musk’s political antics have devalued his brand in many parts of the world.
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What Tesla’s tarnish tells us about America Inc

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

Joe Biden's his parting gift to Donald Trump (above) is a new trade verdict that argues for US government support for the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors in the face of Chinese competition.
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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 – that is, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – was supposed to be on people and planet rather than merely price.
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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.
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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.
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CEOs in the age of anxiety

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