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.

Maddow blasts Trump's 'terrible, absolutely ridiculous way to run a government'

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.

Republican lawmakers may be expressing their relief at Trump’s U-turn on global tariffs—but it appears that none of them knew it was coming.

Trump’s congressional allies were publicly supporting Trump’s erratic tariff decisions as recently as 15 minutes before the president announced a 90-day “pause,” reducing the higher-rate “reciprocal” tariffs to 10 percent for almost all countries, except China.

“I still don’t know what his total strategy is. We know what his goal was... I don’t know what the end game is here,” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson told CNN.

Trump Blinks on Tariffs, Again, for Now

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-markets-investors-bonds-scott-bessent-trade-0d271750?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

 The President pauses on some tariffs amid a bond rout and recession fears.

President Trump says trade wars are easy to win. Investors think otherwise, and on Wednesday Mr. Trump decided maybe investors are right. After a flight from U.S. assets and a rout in the bond market, Mr. Trump announced a pause for 90 days on the worst of his “liberation” tariffs on most countries, China excepted.

Markets celebrated with a stock-market rally on hope that perhaps Mr. Trump isn’t entirely oblivious to the damage he’s causing. The rout in dollar assets reversed, at least somewhat, and the rise in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eased. It would be hard to find better evidence that markets believe the biggest threat to the world economy is Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

The bond rout was scary, with the 10-year yield hitting 4.47% at one point Wednesday, capping the steepest three-day yield climb since 2001. This was accompanied by a decline in the dollar against a basket of currencies. The fire sale on Treasurys and the dollar sent a warning about a loss of confidence in Washington. Investors are demanding higher yields to hold even safe Treasurys, which is the opposite of what usually happens in financial panics.

'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.

The rule of law – meant to protect democracy from the excesses of power – is thus portrayed as a tool of tyranny. And today’s demagogues calculate that majorities will back them, ignorant of or indifferent to the possible abdication of their own basic rights.

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.

President Donald Trump is backing down on his tariffs and putting levies on most countries on a 90-day freeze amid the global market crisis, he said Wednesday.

But after announcing the astonishing about-face, the president also said he is raising the stakes in his trade war with Bejing by ramping up China’s tariffs to a whopping 125 percent.

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

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5239921-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!

Why Musk vs. Navarro Matters

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elon-musk-peter-navarro-tariffs-donald-trump-white-house-e65d2467?mod=hp_opin_pos_3#cxrecs_s

The fight reflects the competing factions in Trump’s coalition.

This isn’t exactly Lincoln’s team of rivals, and we hesitate to devote attention to squabbling West Wing personalities, except that this feud illustrates the competing factions advising President Trump and that make up big chunks of his political coalition. Which side prevails more often is likely to determine whether Mr. Trump’s economic policy succeeds.

Mr. Musk is an erratic political messenger, but he’s right about at least two big things, and he also appears willing to speak truths that Mr. Trump is better off hearing. Mr. Musk believes in trade, and he recently said he hopes that the U.S. and Europe move “to a zero-tariff situation.” He has also pointed out, correctly, that most federal spending is for entitlement programs, though Mr. Trump has promised not to touch such benefits.

Trump's friendship with Israel is a double-edged sword

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-849389

Had Obama or former president Joe Biden announced direct talks with Iran, Netanyahu and his allies would have slammed the move.

Both the announcement and the prime minister’s silence reveal how different the US-Israel relationship is today compared to the Obama years, the last time a US president directly engaged with the Iranians.

But that support comes with a cost. In this case, the price is a loss of some autonomy. Given everything Trump has done for Israel, it is now politically unthinkable for Jerusalem to say “no” to this president.

Had Obama or former president Joe Biden announced direct talks with Iran, Netanyahu and his allies would have slammed the move. But not with Trump – a reminder that even the warmest friendships come with strings attached. In this case, that string is an inability to object.