Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Trump's amateurism on display as he reverses himself again,

backing down on reciprocal tariffs with a 90-day pause,

except for China, which got hit with a 125% tariff on its exports.

We'll examine the possibility that the grifter-in-chief is shorting the market for his friends and his family like Jared by causing these wild swings on the stock exchange

or that Trump realizes world leaders weren't, quote, kissing his ass as he claims they were.

Joining us is Robert Hawkeett, the Edward Cornell Professor of Law and Finance, and a

professor of public policy at Cornell University, who has had first-hand experience working

at the International Monetary Fund and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and continues

to consult for a number of U.S. federal, state, and local legislators and regulators.

He drafted Representative Alexandria Ocasia Cortez's Green New Deal resolution for the House of Representatives

and officially advises her on economic policy. His latest books are money from nothing or why we should

stop worrying about debt and learn to love the Federal

Reserve, financing the Green New Deal, a plan of action and renewal, the Citizens Ledger

digitizing our money, democratizing our finance, and most recently spread the Fed, distributed

central banking for productive monetary policy. Then we'll assess the amount of damage ahead from Trump's trade war and speak with Professor

Matt Gold, who teaches international trade law at the Fordham University School of Law.

He is a distinguished fellow at the Geneva's Trade Institute, where he teaches the United States

as rights and obligations under international trade agreements, and he is a principal

at Gold and Associates, where he consults with investment funds and banks. Professor Gold was a deputy

assistant U.S. trade representative within the executive branch of the President during the Obama-Biden

...