The daily business briefing: March 7, 2018

The departure of Trump's top economic adviser weighs down stocks, Amazon's Jeff Bezos tops Forbes' list of billionaires, and more

Jeff Bezos on stage
(Image credit: David Ryder/Getty Images)

1. Trump's top economic adviser resigns, dragging down stocks

President Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, is resigning, White House officials said Tuesday, after days of controversy over Trump's unexpected announcement that he would impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Cohn and other free-trade advocates, including leading Republican lawmakers, have argued against the tariffs, which have prompted threats of retaliatory import taxes by European officials. Global stocks and the dollar dropped on Wednesday as the departure of Cohn, one of the strongest voices for free trade in the Trump administration, fueled fears that Trump would trigger a trade war by pushing ahead with protectionist tariffs. U.S. stock futures fell sharply, pointing to a drop for the three major U.S. indexes at the opening bell.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.