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March 13, 2025 
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 | By Suein Hwang Business, Economics and Technology Editor, Opinion |
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With the speedy implementation of President Trump’s agenda since January, many Democrats are feeling a bit demoralized, to say the least.
Little wonder, then, that some liberals are glomming onto a sliver of hope: Perhaps Trump chaos is already sinking our economy. “You could almost hear people on the left squeal with delight” when the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projected the economy was on pace to shrink in the first quarter of 2025, writes the economist Justin Wolfers in a guest essay. Wolfers argues that the projection doesn’t tell the full story, and that the economy, at least so far, is doing just fine.
If that leaves you bereft, perhaps you’ll find solace in the volatility of the shares of the electric vehicle maker Tesla, whose chief executive, Elon Musk, is overseeing a stunning evisceration of our federal government. Mihir Desai, a Harvard economist, doesn’t hold back in a bracing argument in another guest essay, which takes apart Musk’s business career to assert that the billionaire’s woes may be just beginning.
Read the guest essays:
Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
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