Trump’s Economic Id: A Trade War Check Up With WSJ’s Gavin Bade

We invited Wall Street Journal trade reporter Gavin Bade back to do a postmortem on the trade war. His answer: it’s not over. New tariffs are coming in late July — more legally durable than before, covering almost every US trading partner, and framed around forced labor and Chinese industrial overcapacity. The kind of thing that’s hard to argue against without sounding like you support slavery. Gavin breaks down why Jamieson Greer has quietly become the most powerful person in US trade policy, why Lutnick has been pushed to the side, and why the administration’s biggest reversal — on China — tells you everything about how they operate when they can’t coerce someone. Plus: Is the AI bubble about to pop and are all these IPOs the insiders cashing out before people notice? Credit card delinquencies, car repos, and why the stock market’s gains are masking a deteriorating picture for the middle 80%. And the data center question Democrats are fumbling — with a closing argument from Kobi on the window that’s rapidly closing. *Is It Bad for the Economy?* is the podcast where a Democratic strategist, an anonymous Wall Street banker, and occasionally a very good journalist try to figure out who’s actually winning and losing in this economy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kobitirey.substack.com