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PRESIDENT DONALD Trump’s bullying of America’s allies and neighbours may appeal to the maga base. Unfortunately, investors feel otherwise. Confidence in the prospects for the American economy has been sapped and financial markets are sinking. The S&P 500 index of American stocks has dropped by 9% since its peak in February. Because Mr Trump’s on-again, off-again protectionism defies logic, their faith in his administration’s ability to steer the economy is evaporating. It is the same with the dollar. As Mr Trump has threatened tariff after tariff, it has fallen, dropping...

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. For years, the house next door to ours was condemned. The retired federal employee who owned it lived elsewhere and seemed mostly to use the property to store a whole bunch of his junk. I would sometimes see him puttering around the library in our part of Arlington, Virginia. Though I would have preferred a neighbor who was friendly and present, I was grateful that for some unfathomable reason he never...