Dow falls more than 1,700 points, Nasdaq sheds over 5%; White House says China tariff is 145%
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Trump concedes there may be "transition problems" as markets plunge again following tariff pause
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-tariffs-cnn-town-hall-04-10-25/index.html
President Donald Trump offered a more sober assessment of the aftermath of his decision to pause some tariffs for 90 days, while convening his Cabinet to discuss next steps.
After taking a victory lap Wednesday, the president on Thursday acknowledged some “transition problems” could be expected – comments that come as the Dow is again tumbling after a historic rally.
“A big day yesterday. There will always be transition difficulty – but in history, it was the biggest day in history, the markets. So we’re very, very happy with the way the country is running. We’re trying to get the world to treat us fairly,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room.
He continued, “We think we’re in very good shape. We think we’re doing very well. Again, there’ll be a transition cost and transition problems, but in the end, it’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
The president praised his Cabinet, whom he has tasked with plans on how to proceed with trade deals and negotiation with China in what is becoming an intensifying trade war with Beijing.
Wall St Sell Off Resumes As Trump Fails To Soothe Market Turmoil
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-administration-tariffs-eu-china-pause-live-updates-2057911
The Dow plunged over 4.3% points Thursday; S&P 500 fell 5%; Nasdaq dropped 5.9%.
Trump's tariff on Chinese goods now sits at a minimum of 145%, up from the 125% announced Wednesday.
The 145% rate includes an earlier 20% levy tied to fentanyl-related sanctions.
U.S. inflation cooled in March, but economists warn new tariffs could soon reverse that trend.
The U.S. dollar index sank 2%, its lowest since early October.
The EU paused retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods for 90 days, signaling a fragile easing in broader trade tensions.
Fox News Reporter Bursts MAGA Bubble: Trump ‘Capitulated’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-reporter-bursts-maga-bubble-trump-capitulated/
A Fox News correspondent had to pump the breaks on the network’s attempts to frame Donald Trump’s sudden 90-day pause on his sweeping tariff plan as an example of his brilliant negotiating prowess.
“Let’s be clear about what happened, who capitulated here and why,” he said on Wednesday. “I don’t want to say this because I am a patriot, I am an American, but it is the White House who capitulated, based on everything I hear and all my sources.
RFK Jr. Has Stunning Response to Cuts to Vital Public Health
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-has-stunning-response-to-cuts-to-vital-public-health/
CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook asked the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday if he had personally approved the more than $11 billion proposed cuts to programs addressing mental health, infectious diseases, addiction, and childhood vaccination. Kennedy, however, alleged that he had no knowledge of them.
Bewildered GOP Had No Idea Trump Changed His Mind on Tariffs
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bewildered-gop-had-no-idea-trump-changed-his-mind-on-tariffs/
The reactions from Donald Trump’s congressional allies proved how little they knew about his decision-making process.
Trump Blinks on Tariffs, Again, for Now
The President pauses on some tariffs amid a bond rout and recession fears.
'Witch hunt': The global right-wing populist rallying cry threatening democracy
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-849474
This is a global movement – a slow-burning insurrection that seeks to replace the checks and balances of liberal democracy with elected autocracy.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Trump Cries Uncle on Tariff Crisis After Market Collapse
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-puts-tariffs-on-hold-amid-market-meltdown/
The freeze comes despite the president’s insistence that he would not back down.
Trump Authorizes 90-Day Pause on Reciprocal Tariffs, Stocks Skyrocket
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-authorizes-90-day-pause-reciprocal-tariffs-stocks-skyrocket-2057589
Amid a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course by pausing most of his tariffs on U.S. trade partners for 90 days, while sharply increasing the tariff rate on Chinese imports to 125 percent.
"I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE," Trump said, after recognizing the more than 75 countries that he said have been negotiating on trade and had not retaliated against his latest increase in tariffs.
Speaking to reporters outside of the White House on Wednesday, the president said about this tariff pause, "I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know. They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid."
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said about the tariff pause, "I hope there's a lesson learned. When you add a bunch of tariffs, you'll lose six trillion in the marketplace. When you get rid of the tariffs, guess what, it comes bounding back."
Trump Urges Calm, Says 'Great Time to Buy' As Markets Convulse Over Tariffs
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-urges-calm-says-great-time-buy-markets-convulse-over-tariffs-2057490
President Donald Trump urged calm and said it's a 'great time to buy' in Wednesday morning social media posts as markets continue to convulse over his tariffs.
The president posted on Truth Social, "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT." He also posted, "BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!"
The S&P 500 slipped 0.7 percent in midday trading Tuesday after a turbulent start to the session. The index, a key benchmark for many 401(k) retirement accounts, swung wildly in the first hour—plunging 0.5 percent at the open, surging to a 1.4 percent gain, and then tumbling back into the red, all within minutes.
Mulvaney says he ‘would have fired’ Navarro during first Trump term
“I would have fired him when he got caught making up his academic sources with his Ron Vara imaginary friend,” Mulvaney said, pointing to Navarro’s 2019 scandal where he faked being one of his own academic sources. “But, I mean, that was Donald Trump’s call.”
“One of the things that makes him so difficult to work with is that he pretends to speak for the president when he does not,” he said. “Peter was notorious back during Trump 1.0 to walk out of a meeting when everybody would sort of assume we’ve got sort of a consensus about something and he would go on TV and say the exact opposite.”
“That has a tremendous demoralizing effect on the White House, and it does tend to mislead markets,” Mulvaney added.
Artificial insemination from a non-Jewish donor
Igros Moshe. (EH II #11) I received your very long letter, which was full of criticism against me,. concerning my ruling which was published in Igros Moshe about artificial insemination which you believe will cause harm to the purity and holiness of the lineage of the Jewish People. It is also obvious from your letter that you think I will object to your criticism. The reality is the opposite. I see from your letter only that there are elevated people who are not afraid or embarrassed to give criticism. However the truth is that there is nothing in what I wrote in that ruling, the slightest possibility of destroying the purity and holiness of the Jewish People. It consists entirely of true Torah from the words of our teachers the Rishonim. Consequently your objections simply indicate that you have a different understanding which is based on non Torah sources which dismiss the words of gedolim in their understanding of G-d’s commandments and the holy Torah. These external views turn prohibitions into permitted acts and that which is permitted becomes prohibited. They are thus antithetical to Torah and halacha. This is true even for being strict as is know the tzadokim actually wanted to be stricter and consequently there were even rabbinic decrees made to go against these greater restrictions of the tzadokim. I am not Thank G-d either from them or the masses. All my Jewish outlook is based entirely on my knowledge of Torah without the slightest mixtue of external knowledge. My rulings are true whether for strictness or leniency. I not only am not influenced by non Torah views but I also don’t make up analysis based on emotion or personal bias even to be more strict than the halacha calls for or because I imagine it is a purer and holier path. Now let’s look at the nature of this halacha. It is unquestionably clear that sexual sins require an act of sexual intercourse and have nothing to do with the sperm . Thus it is irrelevant for the sin whether the intercourse can result in children or not and thus applies to sterile people or whether it is natural or unnatural intercourse or even whether sperm is produced . Since the prohibition is entirely because of the act of intercourse it is totally unrelated to the insertion of sperm into her body when there is no act of intercourse no matter whether the sperm is a relative or someone else she with whom she is prohibited to have intercourse. Consequently she does not become prohibited to her husband nor does the resulting child become a mamzer by the insertion of sperm but only bt an act of prohibited intercourse.
KA I am waiting for you to claim that Rav Moshe could not have wtitten this to someone who disagreed with his psak and it must have been written by Rav Shach!