Hello, this is Michael Moss.

Heather Crox-Richerson is traveling today, and her travel arrangements did not allow her time to read

today's letter, so I will be reading it in her place.

April 30, 2025.

This morning, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released a report showing an abrupt reversal in the U.S. economy.

Gross domestic product, GDP, which measures the total market value of goods and services,

shrank from a healthy 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024 to negative 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025.

The shift is the first time in three years that the economy has contracted.

The slump appears to have been fueled by a surge in

buying overseas goods before Trump's tariffs hit. The stock market plunged on the news.

Although it would recover later in the day, the stock market during President Donald Trump's

first 100 days in office has been the worst since the

administration of Richard Nixon. Today, Trump posted on his social media site,

this is Biden's stock market, not Trump's. I didn't take over until January 20th. Tariffs will

soon start kicking in and companies are starting to move into the USA in record

numbers. Our country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden overhang. This will take a while,

has nothing to do with tariffs, only that he left us with bad numbers. But when the boom begins, it will be like no other. Be patient.

Observers noted that in January 2024, when the stock market was booming under Biden, Trump took

credit for it, posting, this is the Trump's stock market because my polls against Biden are so good

that investors are projecting that I will win, and that will drive the market up.

Trump held a televised two-hour cabinet meeting today, at which administration officials

sat behind red maga hats and praised him so extravagantly that right-wing

...