Image of the week: Trump’s tariffs
We’ve reached that strange time of year when 2025 still seems like little more than a theoretical concept, but the calendar is filling up regardless. Yes, it’s time to red-circle Monday, January 20th, as that’s when Donald Trump plans to start a global trade war.
Never mind the free trade deal agreed between the US, Mexico and Canada during his first term. Trump’s current tariff-crazy threat is to impose duties of 25 per cent on imports from those two neighbours as well as an additional 10 per cent on Chinese goods by way of an executive order on “day one” of his presidency.
He’s tied the plan to his desire to reduce illegal immigration and imports of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the US. In effect, this makes his fondness for tariffs less about his dubious belief that they will protect US industry and more about bullying trading partners into doing what he wants on issues unrelated to trade.
“No one will win a trade war or a tariff war,” the Chinese embassy in Washington DC said. Echoing the theme of mutually assured economic destruction, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico would be forced to respond with tit-for-tat tariffs “until we put our common businesses at risk”. And Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, in the understatement of the month, described his dealings with Trump as “a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on”.
In numbers: Disney sexism
9,000
Women employed or formerly employed by Disney in California who joined a class action alleging pay discrimination. They have now obtained a settlement from the “House of Mouse”.
$43 million
Sum that Disney has agreed to pay to settle the lawsuit, which alleged that female Disney employees in California earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over an eight-year period.
6
The suit was first filed by LaRonda Rasmussen in 2019 after she discovered that six men with the same job title earned substantially more than her, including one with less experience who was taking home $20,000 more. Now that’s taking the mickey.
Getting to know: Susie, Howard and Peter Buffett
Susie Buffett (71), Howard Buffett (69) and Peter Buffett (66) are the children of multibillionaire investor Warren Buffett (94), a man who would be richer than Elon Musk in 2024 if he hadn’t spent decades giving away so much of his fortune to philanthropic causes. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman, not a believer in dynastic wealth, is still worth a cool $150 billion, however, and is now making plans to distribute 99.5 per cent of his remaining wealth to a charitable trust that will be overseen by his daughter and two sons when he dies. After his death they will have about 10 years to give away the money. But as they’re getting on a bit themselves, three “somewhat younger” potential successor trustees have been lined up on “the wait list”. The three children, who each head foundations, have “spent far more time directly helping others than I have”, Buffett wrote in a letter to Berkshire shareholders, adding that he and their mother, his late first wife Susan, would be “very proud of them”.
The list: Profit warnings
Sooner or later, economic and geopolitical volatility translates into a steady drip of profit warnings, as executive management teams realise that things are either not quite as rosy as they thought a few months earlier, or even worse than they already admitted. Here are five recent ones to note.
1. JD Sports: The sportswear and outdoorwear group saw its stock slump last week after it highlighted mild October weather as one of the reasons for increased trading volatility.
2. Stellantis: The Italian company – the fourth-largest carmaker in the world – slashed its annual forecasts in September and this week said it was closing its Vauxhall plant in Luton, England.
3. Vistry: The UK housebuilder has issued two profit warnings this autumn after revealing it had understated the total build costs on some projects. It is now poised to leave the FTSE 100.
4. Pets at Home: The Covid boom for getting a new pet is now over, and weak consumer confidence in the UK isn’t helping, according to this week’s warning from pet-care retailer Pets at Home Group.
5. Aston Martin: The luxury car maker says it needs to raise cash after its second profit warning in two months. Perhaps casting a new James Bond would help?
