Tariffs, stocks, staffing & health: signs of danger flashing
The U.S. Constitution gives lawmakers tariff authority for a reason; stocks fall to correction level; judge orders Trump rehire thousands; deadly TB is spreading.
Congress controls tariff authority
The Constitution of the United States grants sole tariff authority to the Congress. After the Second World War, some of that authority to initiate new tariff policy was delegated by Congress to the President, primarily to facilitate the negotiated reduction of tariffs as part of wider international agreements and to foster more open trade and cooperation.
The Congressional Research Service explores the specific provisions of federal law that delineate this delegation of authority. Over time, Congress and the courts have recognized that Presidents can initiate both reductions and increases in tariffs, but neither Congress nor the courts have authority to surrender all tariff authority to the Executive, without an amendment transferring that authority away from the Legislature.
Stock values plunge to ‘correction’ levels
On Thursday, stocks trading in the U.S. fell to 10% below their recent peak value—technically a market correction. As reported by Bloomberg:
The S&P 500 fell 1.4% on the day, bringing its three-week rout past 10%, a level that meets the technical threshold for a correction. It’s down more than 6% for the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index, also in a correction, tumbled 1.9% on the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%, bringing it 9.3% below its last record in December.
The steep decline in stock values is largely attributed to worsening uncertainty about trade, inflation, costs of borrowing, and access to supplies needed for agriculture and manufacturing. This uncertainty is linked to Pres. Trump’s increasingly disruptive and constantly changing pronouncements of possible tariffs targeting major trading partners, and to lingering inaction to ease the pressures pushing food prices up.
Federal court orders Trump to reinstate thousands of civil servants
As we have reported several times at The Navigator, the President of the United States does not have legal authority to unilaterally alter or ignore labor rights protections or contract law, including for federal workers. On Thursday, Politico reported:
A second federal judge has ordered the mass reinstatement of fired federal workers, reversing the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary employees at 18 major agencies.
The agencies covered by U.S. District Judge James Bredar’s sweeping order, issued Thursday night, include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury, among others.
The ruling was the second in the same day by a federal judge ordering reinstatement of thousands of workers across multiple federal agencies. Judge William Alsup accused the government’s lawyers of stonewalling to block the court’s access to evidence and said:
It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie.
Reckless removal of public health funding is spreading deadly disease
Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease. Now, the sudden removal of funding and operational support for treatment, containment, and prevention is causing the disease to spread. The Atlantic reports:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a near-perfect predator. In 1882, Robert Koch, the physician who discovered the microbe, told a room full of scientists that it caused one in seven of all deaths. In 2023, after a brief hiatus, tuberculosis regained from COVID its status as the world’s deadliest infectious disease—a title it has held for most of what we know of human history.
Some people die of TB when their lungs collapse or fill with fluid. For others, scarring leaves so little healthy lung tissue that breathing becomes impossible. Or the infection spreads to the brain or the spinal column, or they suffer a sudden, uncontrollable hemorrhage. Lack of appetite and extreme abdominal pain can fuel weight loss so severe that it whittles away muscle and bone. This is why TB was widely known as “consumption” until the 20th century…”
Now, even as Kansas experiences a new outbreak, the World Health Organization is warning of a global surge in infections, due to funding interruptions, as medical supply chains break down, clinical staffing is cut back, and reduced community engagement makes it harder to prevent infections as infected patients are turned away and go untreated at home.
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