Trump Tariffs, Nintendo Switch, Trade Deficits, Patrimonialism, and Doggy Bags
Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
📊 AI Research
🫨 Trump Tariffs
🕹️ Nintendo Switch
🌏 Trade Deficits
💼 Layoffs
💩 Patrimonialism
🥘 Doggy Bags
Podcast
Revolutionizing Investment Research with AI
In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, Kyle interviews Andrew Einhorn, CEO and co-founder of LevelFields, an AI-driven fintech application that automates investment research. Andrew shares his unique background in epidemiology and data science, detailing how it led him to create LevelFields, which focuses on event-driven trading strategies. The conversation explores the importance of user feedback, the role of AI in investment analysis, and how LevelFields differentiates itself from traditional investment platforms. Andrew emphasizes the need for continuous innovation and the lessons learned from his previous ventures.
News and Useful Reads
The Trump Tariffs Are How Everything Works Now
You probably didn’t miss the tariff news, but it just keeps getting worse and worse. Not only are the people in Trump’s regime corrupt, but they are so incompetent, they apparently needed AI to create the tariff plan for them. Which leads to putting tariffs on islands inhabited only by penguins…
There are situations in which tariffs are a useful tool to address a trade deficit, or to protect key sectors of a country’s economy. Then there are situations where you accuse a bunch of penguins on an uninhabited island of currency manipulation. Guess which one we’re living in?
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The AI industry doesn’t know if Trump just killed its GPU supply
AI companies can’t figure out if the Trump tariffs are about to decimate them – and the fact that no one has a clear answer is sending them, and the tech industry overall, into a confusion spiral.
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders over tariff concerns
Nintendo is pushing back preorders for the Switch 2 due to concerns about Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs.
Trade deficits do not make a country poorer
Trade deficits aren’t inherently bad. This is a fundamental misunderstanding that is leading Trump to make the massive mistake of imposing tariffs on the entire world.
Trump and his advisors and apparatchiks believe that trade deficits constitute America being “ripped off” by foreign countries. As I explained in yesterday’s post, this is why Trump set his tariff rates at a level that he thinks will eliminate America’s trade deficit with each individual country.
Layoff announcements surge to the most since the pandemic as Musk’s DOGE slices federal labor force
Regardless of what you might think about federal employees, hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs hurts everyone. They’ll be added to the large number of people competing for jobs right now, and as they cut back their spending, it will only move us into recession faster.
A surge in federal government job cuts contributed to a near record-setting pace for announced layoffs in March, exceeded only by when the country shut down in 2020 for the Covid pandemic, according to a report Thursday from job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Other Interesting Finds
One Word Describes Trump
Most of us are watching in horror as the US descends from democracy to authoritarianism. But the intermediate step we’re in describes Trump perfectly: Patrimonialism.
Patrimonialism is less a form of government than a style of governing. It is not defined by institutions or rules; rather, it can infect all forms of government by replacing impersonal, formal lines of authority with personalized, informal ones. Based on individual loyalty and connections, and on rewarding friends and punishing enemies (real or perceived), it can be found not just in states but also among tribes, street gangs, and criminal organizations.
Is the Doggy Bag Dead?
Do you take your restaurant leftovers home? Does it depend on the situation?
A number of restaurateurs in New York and other cities have observed this surprising shift in behavior. They attribute doggy-bag aversion to a number of factors, including social stigmas, the ease of ordering takeout and a return to sharing food after the pandemic made doing so taboo.