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|  |  | Tuesday, July 15, 2025 | | Sponsored by |  |  | | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
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punishment. Days after a blanket tariff threat on all Mexican goods, a Trump-imposed tax on Mexican tomatoes has kicked in, affecting U.S. shoppers. |
| | Tsar wars. Trump says he’ll impose a “very steep” 100% tariff on any and all Russian goods if Vladimir Putin doesn’t negotiate a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine soon. |
| | The Yuan that got away. Despite tariffs, China’s export economy is thriving (a record $586 billion trade surplus in the first half of 2025), and the numbers tell quite the story as to why. |
| | Spaced-out funding. Elon Musk’s SpaceX just invested $2 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI startup (best known for Grok) — and Elon Musk’s Tesla could be part of the next funding round. |
| | Grok the vote. xAI just announced a partnership with the Defense Department and an “Grok for Government” initiative to bring the chatbot to the federal government. |
| | D.C.’s block party. Bitcoin just hit a $120,000 price as House Republicans get set to take up three crypto-related bills in what’s being called “Crypto Week” in Washington. |
| | A MESSAGE FROM THE NEURON |  | STAY AHEAD IN AI | Join more than 550,000 professionals who trust The Neuron for the latest AI trends and tools. Our newsletter, written by experts, helps you navigate the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence and stay informed. | | | UNDER CONSTRUCTION — AND UNDER FIRE | The Trump administration has its latest line of attack on the Federal Reserve: a pricey renovation of the Fed’s Depression-era headquarters in Washington. What began as a long-overdue infrastructure update has now morphed into a political flashpoint — and possibly a pretext for firing Fed Chair Jerome
Powell.
The overhaul of the Fed’s three-building campus, first greenlit years ago, is now estimated to cost $2.5 billion — a cool $700 million over budget. According to the Fed, the renovation will ultimately save money by consolidating operations and modernizing safety systems (read: despite Twitter theories, there will be no VIP elevators or secret dining rooms). But the Trump White House isn’t buying it — or, more accurately, it’s trying to sell a different
story.
Last week, Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought accused Powell of misleading Congress about the project’s scope and costs, writing that the Fed chief had “plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul” instead of reining in spending. In response, Powell requested an internal investigation by the Fed’s new inspector general, Michael Horowitz. And while it’s still illegal to fire a Fed chair without cause, President Donald Trump’s allies appear to be workshopping
one.
| | AMERICA FIRST, PROFITS ELSEWHERE | President Donald Trump may claim he’s putting America first — but investors are putting their money elsewhere. While the U.S. wrestles with tariffs, deficits, and a sinking dollar, investors are quietly
piling into foreign stocks and bonds. It turns out that being outside the blast zone of Trump’s economic agenda has its perks.
The MSCI Emerging Markets index, which tracks shares in 24 countries, is up 15.3% this year, outperforming both the S&P 500 and the MSCI World index. And in bond land, it’s the same story: JPMorgan’s emerging-markets local currency bond index is up 11%, beating developed markets by a wide margin. That’s a sharp U-turn from April, when Trump’s tariffs had
investors bolting from emerging markets over fears of slowed global growth. But the real twist is that it’s the weakening U.S. dollar — down 10% this year, its worst start to a year since Nixon ditched the gold standard in 1973 — that has made emerging market assets more attractive and central banks in those countries more confident about cutting rates. One man’s currency crisis is another man’s bull run.
Meanwhile, China is staging a comeback tour of its own. After years of
underperformance, Chinese tech stocks — which make up nearly a third of the MSCI EM index — are rallying hard. Thanks to state-backed stimulus, a public AI flex from DeepSeek, and Xi Jinping’s decision to end his crackdown on Big Tech (with Jack Ma reappearing like might be expected in a season of “Succession”), Alibaba alone has jumped 68% in a month. U.S. tech stocks, by contrast, took a trillion-dollar hit.
| | A MESSAGE FROM THE NEURON | | STAY AHEAD IN AI | Join more than 550,000 professionals who trust The Neuron for the latest AI trends and tools. Our newsletter, written by experts, helps you navigate the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence and stay informed. | | | MORE FROM QUARTZ | |
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