Catherine Rampell: Trump is Making China Greater & America Dumber

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John welcomes Bulwark economics editor and MS Now host Catherine Rampell to discuss the fragile state of the Trump 2.0 economy and how the president’s policies — on China, tariffs, tech, manufacturing, and more — are undermining it in both the short and long term. Catherine also explains why Wall Street’s collective view that Trump’s pick to be the next Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, is an inflation hawk and fierce defender of the Fed's independence may prove to be wishful thinking ... or downright delusional. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
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0:34.9	Aloha and namaste everyone and welcome to Impolitic with John Hyaman, a puck and Odyssey Joint,
0:39.4	featuring lively, in-depth conversations with the people who cruise the quarters of power in America,
0:44.1	sculpting and shaping the evident flow of our politics and culture.
0:48.9	After a rough week on Wall Street last week that saw stocks tumble across basically every sector from
0:55.8	tech to commodities to precious metals alongside the continuing slide of crypto into full-blown
1:01.5	implosion territory. The markets rebounded sharply on Friday, but not dramatically or
1:07.4	fundamentally enough to paper over the underlying fragility of and uncertainty
1:12.3	surrounding the state of the American economy and the many and increasingly troubling
1:17.3	questions about where things are headed as we hurdle headlong into 2026. Consider the following
1:23.1	headlines from the Wall Street Journal last week. U.S. manufacturing is in retreat, and Trump's
1:28.7	tariffs aren't helping. The American and Chinese economies are hurtling towards a messy divorce.
1:35.5	Bitcoin's boosters, $12 billion loss headlines crypto's worst day since the 2022 crash.
	...

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