In a new report, the Treasury Department declares it will begin scrutinizing any nation that runs a bilateral trade imbalance of more than $40 billion with the United States
Also: Mike Lee says Congress must reassert power over the presidency. And so long to Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The heroism of the still-unidentified "Tank Man" helped destroy authoritarian rule in so many countries, but not his own.
Even if Trump's tariffs go away, the debilitating economic effects are likely to linger for years.
Plus: humanitarians face felonies for helping migrants, Huawei scientists banned from reviewing prestigious journal, and more...
China's 2010 export restrictions on rare earth compounds failed then, and they would fail now
This might seem like nothing more than a snooze-worthy debate over semantics or economic theory or government P.R. strategies. But it matters a lot.
Plus: Game of Thrones ends, Trump's trade war with China regrettably does not.
As messy as things are, they could get uglier still.
Preventing a slow march toward automated authoritarianism?
The president’s double-talk about tariffs reflects his economically ignorant conviction that exports are good and imports are bad.
If the United States had pursued a different strategy from the outset of the Trump administration, it might now be in a position to counter China's hardball tactics.
Is the president the only person left in America who doesn't understand that Americans are paying for his tariffs?
Should you be worried?
David Friedman’s Legal Systems Very Different from Ours explores the costs and benefits of various legal systems across time.
But wasn't the whole point of the trade war to boost U.S. manufacturing?
Friday A/V Club: Springtime for Mao
Yujing Zhang, Cindy Yang, and prostitution busts at Chinese spas have planted the seeds for new conspiratorial corruption narratives to bloom.
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's revisionist history of the U.S.-China trade relationship misses the mark.
Plus: An Ohio city just abolished its entire vice policing unit, and unfunded liabilities in public pension plans are now more than $5.96 trillion.
"Bilateral tariffs result in lower GDP, employment, investment, and trade for the U.S.," a new report concludes.
Fretting over deficits and intellectual property will do no good and much harm.
Any deal will be better than the current mess, which is largely of Trump's own making.
How would you like it if nearby strangers could instantly access your credit score on their phones?
A new international commission will consider the pros and cons of human genome editing.
Dow Jones skyrockets on news that Steve Mnuchin is leading behind-the-scenes effort to reduce tariffs on China.
And it's not a record low. That's fine, but it's not what the president said would happen.
Attempts to control how artificial intelligence develops and is used could backfire.
Plus: Trump dumps on the media as CNN faces a bomb scare, murder rates are falling, and corporate gender quotas don't work.
The government can't stop the flow of illegal drugs, but it can always make them more deadly.
And once again, Trump is distracted from real policy by symbolic brutality.
Saturday's deal seems to be a strategic retreat by the Trump administration.
Flinging around such terms is not helpful and does not advance the debate.
Yet under Chinese law, some rapists get only three years behind bars.
Trump seems to prefer escalation. More tariffs could be coming in early December.
And it could get worse, as China is now considering cutting off all American soybean purchases.
But who, exactly, will be suffering?
Trump's latest trade war maneuver will raise prices, but it's more defensible than his tariffs.
Under Chinese law, disrespecting the national anthem is punishable by up to 15 days in jail.
Soybean prices have fallen as much as 30 percent since planting season, and harvest is fast approaching.
The tech giant appears willing to do almost anything to win access to the vast Chinese market.
Walmart warns the Trump administration it may be forced to raise prices in response to tariffs.
The unseen consequences of the trade war matter as much as the more visible.
Chinese entrepreneurs worry that the trade war will "put them in the Communist Party's crosshairs," and make further market reforms politically difficult.
