Officials across the Trump administration are scrambling to devise legal strategies that would allow the government to keep billions of dollars in tariff revenue the Supreme Court said was illegally collected.

Early ideas include policies to discourage companies from claiming their refunds, prevent the government from paying the money back or otherwise preserve at least some of the tariff revenue, according to five people familiar with the conversations, granted anonymity to discuss them.

One of the ideas, according to two of the people, is to claim the tariff payments, which were collected over the last year, are legal under a revamped set of duties that the administration is now preparing under different legal authorities. Another would allow companies to jump to the front of what is expected to be a lengthy queue for refunds if they agree to forfeit some of the money to the government, according to one of the people familiar. (POLITICO – Continue Reading)

Less than six weeks ahead of a likely summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, preparations are inadequate, bilateral contacts anaemic and outcomes diminished, according to analysts and former government officials familiar with planning.

The shortfall reflected in part Trump’s reluctance to delegate, disdain for process and focus on quick wins, banking instead on personal magnetism and his “gut” as summit organising principles, they said.

The planning deficit also speaks to differences in US and Chinese political culture, with Beijing inclined towards heavily staged events free of missteps, especially involving its president, and Washington more tolerant of spontaneity, particularly under Trump. (SCMP – Continue Reading)

Nvidia now makes more revenue in a single quarter than most other chip companies generate in an entire year. In a turbulent market awash in a new class of AI fears, that’s no longer enough.

The chip maker’s fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday showed why the company remains the undisputed leader in artificial-intelligence computing. Revenue of $68.1 billion was up 73% from the same period a year earlier and represented the company’s best growth rate in four quarters. Nvidia projected an even higher growth rate for the current quarter, and that forecast actually beat Wall Street’s consensus target by the widest range in two years, according to FactSet data. (WSJ – Continue Reading)

Since its peak last fall, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has lost almost half its value. Nearly $2 trillion of wealth has evaporated from the global crypto market since October.

We have one question. What took so long? Outside of crimes and scams, the technology is useless, and its economics are even worse.

The answer is that crypto was held aloft for months by a period of euphoria that followed the extraordinary support the industry gained in the Trump administration. The crypto bros who spent millions getting Donald Trump elected seemed to get virtually everything they might want: a longtime industry investor elevated to White House adviser; one type of crypto given the imprimatur of the federal government; the near annihilation of effective regulatory scrutiny; invitations to White House dinners hosted by Mr. Trump. (NY Times – Continue Reading)