Rachel Abrams

Well, from the United States, American consumers are just going to see prices go up. They're going to order things from Amazon and be shocked by what they're paying for whatever you're ordering from China, which is a lot of things. From the Chinese side... this is going to make a bad economic situation even worse.

That means higher unemployment, that means factories going idle, that means goods that are just sitting in warehouses and not being able to offload it onto other countries. But ironically, in the long run, this could actually help China. It could actually accelerate the one thing they really, really need, which is to reform their economy away from exports. They can't be this one trick pony.

That means higher unemployment, that means factories going idle, that means goods that are just sitting in warehouses and not being able to offload it onto other countries. But ironically, in the long run, this could actually help China. It could actually accelerate the one thing they really, really need, which is to reform their economy away from exports. They can't be this one trick pony.

They have to find a way to get... more people in China to consume things kind of like Americans so that their economy is on a more sustainable footing. And the problem is the government knows this, but to make that reform requires painful changes that have been really slow and hard to make so far.

They have to find a way to get... more people in China to consume things kind of like Americans so that their economy is on a more sustainable footing. And the problem is the government knows this, but to make that reform requires painful changes that have been really slow and hard to make so far.

Yeah, that's true, except economists have been telling China that it needs to reform its economy for years, whereas economists in the United States are very skeptical about President Trump's plan and how it would bring manufacturing back to the United States.

Yeah, that's true, except economists have been telling China that it needs to reform its economy for years, whereas economists in the United States are very skeptical about President Trump's plan and how it would bring manufacturing back to the United States.

In the meantime, China would definitely prefer status quo because then it could work on reforming its economy without facing the pressure of a trade war.

In the meantime, China would definitely prefer status quo because then it could work on reforming its economy without facing the pressure of a trade war.

So right now we're still in the brinksmanship phase, I think, of the trade war. There's still some room where they're jockeying for some sort of acceptable solution where both leaders save face. But what this disruption has done reminded us is that there's a chance these two largest economies in the world could actually divorce, what we call decoupling.

So right now we're still in the brinksmanship phase, I think, of the trade war. There's still some room where they're jockeying for some sort of acceptable solution where both leaders save face. But what this disruption has done reminded us is that there's a chance these two largest economies in the world could actually divorce, what we call decoupling.

And if that actually happens, we'll speak of it as a sort of before and after times. To be sure, we're not there yet, but we're closer than ever before. And you have to think about the U.S.-China relationship for the last five decades. The glue has been business. It is the bedrock of almost 50 years of bilateral relations. You take that glue away, then everything is on the table now.

And if that actually happens, we'll speak of it as a sort of before and after times. To be sure, we're not there yet, but we're closer than ever before. And you have to think about the U.S.-China relationship for the last five decades. The glue has been business. It is the bedrock of almost 50 years of bilateral relations. You take that glue away, then everything is on the table now.

The two most powerful countries can't get together and talk about all the other problems facing the world today, like climate change, like pandemics, like financial crises. But it also means they can't get together and talk about things they disagree on, because they'll have less reason to. Things like the fate of Taiwan, fentanyl, and human rights. And if China and the U.S.

The two most powerful countries can't get together and talk about all the other problems facing the world today, like climate change, like pandemics, like financial crises. But it also means they can't get together and talk about things they disagree on, because they'll have less reason to. Things like the fate of Taiwan, fentanyl, and human rights. And if China and the U.S.

aren't talking, if they're not engaging on these big issues, then we're suddenly plunged into a far more dangerous world.

aren't talking, if they're not engaging on these big issues, then we're suddenly plunged into a far more dangerous world.

Thank you, Rachel.

Thank you, Rachel.

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily. Over the past few weeks, some of the most prestigious universities in the country have faced a threat to their very existence from President Trump, who has frozen billions of dollars in federal funds in an attempt to rid higher education of what he calls its woke ideology.