Indonesian Markets Brace for Tariff Turmoil After Weeklong Break
Stocks, bonds and currency markets will resume trading for the first time since March 27, after the nation observed the Eid al-Fitr holidays, over which period the iShares MSCI Indonesia exchange-traded fund has fallen about 8%. During the break, US President Donald Trump's tariffs — and a subsequent retaliation by China — trigged a sharp selloff in risk assets, leading to a rout across Asia.
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Forbes
13 minutes ago
- Forbes
AI Action Plan Channels Rally Energy, Ignites U.S. Policy Debate
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 23: Jacob Helberg, Hill and Valley co-founder and Under Secretary of State for ... More economic growth designate; NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang; Founders Fund partner and Varda Space Industries co-founder Delian Asparouhov; and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Lee Zeldin give a standing ovation to U.S. President Donald Trump at the "Winning the AI Race" summit. At the Winning AI Race Summit, President Donald Trump delivered a speech combining campaign-style showmanship with concrete policy proposals for America's future in artificial intelligence. Speaking in his trademark improvisational style, assertive and theatrical, punctuated with rally-style slogans, Trump laid out a private-sector-driven strategy to reassert U.S. dominance in AI. It is the start of a 'golden age of America,' he said, punctuating the message with chants of 'Drill, baby, drill and build, baby, build!' and urging American technology companies to go 'all in for America.' The president announced an executive order banning what he called woke AI, a move that immediately sparked debate over the government's role in shaping the values embedded in AI systems. Additionally, Trump also called for expedited permitting for data centers and energy projects, and launched an initiative to make the U.S. an 'AI export powerhouse.' An AI Agenda Tailored For The Tech Industry Trump's speech outlined the plan to boost America's AI global standing, empowering private-sector growth through deregulation, incentives and diplomacy for market access. He called for clearer copyright rules that would let AI systems learn from publicly available content without being blocked by licensing restrictions. He advocated for a single federal AI regulatory standard. A mix of state laws, he warned, could slow innovation and strain early-stage companies and small businesses. The president made clear that he sees the private sector, not government, as the primary engine of innovation. He said Washington should enable innovation, not interfere with it, and declared his intention to keep bureaucrats 'out of the way.' Trump pledged to accelerate the build of AI infrastructure, including data centers, power plants and semiconductor fabs, via deregulation and expedited permitting. He linked this effort to a broader industrial revival, citing the need for electricians, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians and construction workers to meet the rising demand. The speech referred to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget reconciliation bill at the core of Trump's second-term agenda with tax cuts, spending adjustments and a debt ceiling increase. It highlighted its provisions allowing companies to deduct capital expenses upfront to accelerate private investment in infrastructure. Internationally, Trump proposed turning the U.S. into an AI export powerhouse of full-stack solutions that include American AI models, applications and the hardware it runs on. The goal is to promote sales to allied nations, backed by diplomatic and trade support from the State and Commerce Departments. On energy, he called for an 'all of the above' strategy, including coal, oil, gas and nuclear to meet AI's rapidly growing power demands. According to the Energy Information Administration, China produced more than twice as much energy as the U.S. in 2023. With abundant power generation, China can support large AI factories, even when powered by less energy-efficient chips, such as older generations of Nvidia chips or locally produced semiconductors from Huawei. Trump vowed to eliminate what he called woke mandates from federally supported AI, criticizing prior policies that tied government funding to diversity goals. President Biden's industrial strategy for semiconductor manufacturing included language encouraging companies to broaden their hiring pipelines. Under a new executive order, the government would be barred from using systems that incorporate ideological screening or require diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) benchmarks. Lastly, Trump said he would support small tech firms to ensure competition and innovation beyond the dominant platforms, arguing that 'the future of AI shouldn't belong to a few companies alone.' The AI Plan Draws Mixed Reactions Critics of the plan warn that it favors entrenched corporate interests while sidelining democratic safeguards and public accountability. Nicholas Garcia, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, calls it 'a handout to already-entrenched, powerful tech companies'. The plan's emphasis on deregulation and expedited permitting has raised alarm among environmental advocates, who point to the potential climate impact of large-scale data centers and fossil fuel-heavy power generation. Civil society organizations created the 'People's AI Action Plan,' a manifesto stating that 'We can't let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality.' Civil liberties groups are also sounding the alarm. The ban on woke AI and the proposed removal of misinformation safeguards have drawn criticism from speech and privacy experts. The Electronic Privacy Information Center said the move is 'placing business interests ahead of consumer protection.' 'The government's interest in only supporting AI that upholds free speech gives me pause,' said Manasi Vartak, chief AI architect at Cloudera. 'In an age of misinformation and where AIs are becoming a key source of information, this banner of free speech can easily be misused.' At the same time, she praised the 'support for open-source and open-weight models and datasets, which are essential for innovation and for continuing research.' The Politics Of AI Policy Trump's AI strategy uses a familiar Silicon Valley formula: deregulate, invest in infrastructure and trust the market to deliver. While the plan is ambitious, much of it remains a framework, leaving federal agencies and Congress to fill in the details. Whether it can move from rally to policy will depend on engagement from civil society, which, until now, has remained at the margin of the administration's approach. As agencies begin translating priorities into rules and funding decisions, implementation could drift into partisan favoritism. But the moment also opens space for new types of governance that move past the usual tug-of-war between regulation and laissez-faire. Policy experts are calling for governance models that pair public-private collaboration with independent audits and oversight systems designed to evolve with the fast-changing AI tools. A report by Fathom, an independent nonprofit, reminds that 'no matter how well-intentioned any government's efforts might be, the reality is that direct government regulation simply cannot keep up with the pace of innovation. Worse yet, it might suffocate it.' How the plan plays out will influence U.S. competitiveness and the rules that shape AI worldwide. As other nations advance their AI strategies, Trump's private-sector-first emphasis will be tested. The plan positions the U.S. for leadership in technology, innovation and global adoption. But its success will ultimately depend on whether people around the world trust and use American-made AI.
Epoch Times
an hour ago
- Epoch Times
Trump Visits Scotland to Meet UK, EU Leaders, Says Odds of US-EU Trade Deal Are 50–50
President Donald Trump is floating the idea of rebate checks for Americans as tariff revenue pours in. What's next in trade talks as Trump arrives in Scotland, and what does he tell NTD about Harvard as Columbia agrees to a $200 million fine? Meanwhile, $6 billion of Education Department funds is being released to schools. What...
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
If Trump Wants American Businesses To Thrive, He Should Get Rid of Government Subsidies
Do American businesses require government subsidies to thrive? In a Thursday post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote: "Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon [Musk's] companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!" He added, "I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!" It's not entirely clear if Trump will cut subsidies to Musk's companies. But during a press briefing a day earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "I don't think so. No." when asked if the president supports agencies contracting with Musk's xAI. The federal government spends $181 billion a year on "direct cash subsidies" and "indirect industry support" for private businesses, according to a March study by Chris Edwards, the Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies at the Cato Institute. In June, during a public feud between the two men, Trump posted that the easiest way to cut spending would be "to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," adding he was "always surprised that Biden didn't do it!" Musk's Tesla Model S was launched with a $465 million Department of Energy loan, and his company has received $11.4 billion in state and federal subsidies, according to a February report by The Washington Post. It's not just Musk's companies, though—the government trough is open for businesses from all industries, including agriculture, aviation, broadband, energy, education, hospitality, housing, manufacturing, transportation, and others. The $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which aims to provide internet access to underserved and rural areas, has connected zero people. Annual farm subsidies can range "between about $15 billion to $30 billion per year," according to a Cato Institute report. Recent spending bills are littered with government subsidies that overpromise and underdeliver. This includes $684 million spent on eight nonoperational coal carbon-capture plants over the past 15 years, $387 million spent on a failed "clean coal" power plant in Mississippi, and $200 billion stolen from the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) programs. "Everyone wants the United States to be at the leading edge of industry," Edwards tells Reason, "but the way to do that is for the federal government to get it out of the way and to provide an open playing field for everyone." Yet the administration has a mixed record on subsidies in recent weeks. As part of the $9.4 billion rescissions package, Congress recently voted to cut subsidies for public broadcasting. Now, NPR and PBS have to obtain all, rather than most, of their funding from donors and sponsorships. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act claws back $500 billion in energy subsidies but also includes $52.3 billion in spending on the farm safety net, the most significant agricultural subsidy provided by the government. Trump's tariffs are also "akin to corporate subsidies as well", says Edwards, with industries already facing the effects of protectionism lobbying in Washington for favorable treatment. It's consumers who get the short end of the stick in all this, although the administration seems to be OK with this outcome. Worryingly, Trump has at times attempted to assert the executive branch's power over private companies, such as his executive order to "combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities," and those targeting various law firms. When companies hitch their wagon to federal funding, it makes it easier for the government to wield the power of the state against them. Edwards argues that "protecting U.S. businesses through subsidies or tariffs makes them complacent and less competitive." True competitiveness, he adds, comes from being "subjected to the full rigors of the market." If Trump wants American businesses to "THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!" he could act on his promise to "cut Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in spending," by calling on Congress to cancel all federal subsidies and allow American businesses to thrive, or fail, on their merit. The post If Trump Wants American Businesses To Thrive, He Should Get Rid of Government Subsidies appeared first on
