Now we learn the billionaire owner of a bridge that will compete w/the new Canada-MI bridge met with Lutnick right before Trump issued his threat to shut down the new bridge. The Trump admin is a lawless mafia gangster extortion racket existing to enrich oligarchs at our expense.

"The failed vote comes as House Democrats are preparing to force a vote to terminate Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on Canada."

The EU cannot engineer a euro depreciation even if it wanted to. Why would an analysis even mention that? Did the French government use AI to generate the report?

@chadpbown.com 's trade war timeline 2.0 has been updated! New updates include the US-India deal, the US-Bangladesh deal, details on the US-Argentina deal, and more: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2025/trumps-trade-war-timeline-20-date-guide

« J’en doute », déclare @prleblond.bsky.social à propos de la question de savoir si Trump ira réellement jusqu’au bout de sa menace concernant le pont Gordie Howe. Analyse complète: youtu.be/FT9lZ6EzAmc

Great post from @simonlester.com comparing the drafting of national security trade policy alignment provisions in recent US deals: ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2026/02/comp...

Check out my typically rosy view of things tonight on TVO's @therundowntvo.bsky.social!

So, Trump will eventually have to invade Canada to save ice hockey and the Stanley Cup, Canadian dairy, and the Gordie Howe bridge (which Canada is paying for because the U.S. couldn’t be bothered to share the cost) from China. Canada is so lucky to have such a caring neighbour…🙏🏼🙄

“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.

👇🎯 It’s sort of incredible we’re still having this conversation in February 2026, given the scale & scope of things that he won’t or can’t do but continues to get away with on a daily basis, on about 37 different dimensions. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

China’s electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been at the heart of Canadians’ discussions surrounding recent federal government announcements about EVs in Canada, but are they worth all the attention? financialpost.com/commodities/...

🧵🇺🇦

You Don't Need Democracy If You Don't Have People. @quinnslobodian.com and I discuss the tech billionaire dream of "capitalism without democracy." Quinn's work helped inspire my own, so it was great to finally chat! He's been leading the way on this topic. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1om...

This is not true. All of the evidence from videos and eyewitnesses show the booing started when Vance appeared on the jumbotron. An accurate headline would say this: "VANCE BOOED AT MILAN CORTINA OPENING CEREMONY"

“This morning, I spoke to a really senior adviser to Pierre Poilievre, and he said that it took him all hell’s work to convince Pierre to finally take up anti-immigration status. And that’s happening”

Too many Americans are just not seeing the world as it is. Those “unfriendly” numbers should be a lot higher.

Any decision to join U.S. critical minerals bloc will be part of USMCA talks, Canadian foreign minister says www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Canada's Standing Committee on International Trade has also been considering the bill to implement the UK's CPTPP Accession this week - www.ourcommons.ca/committees/e... - including industry and departmental evidence

NEW: Trump's plan to steal the Midterms. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/trumps-pla...

‘A brilliant guide to the strange politics born from the Great Financial Crisis.’- Quinn Slobodian Technocrats in Turmoil: The Fed, the ECB, and the Changing Politics of Money by Nicolas Jabko (@jhuartssciences.bsky.social), Coming Soon #Economics 🗺️ #PoliSky #EconSky https://cup.org/3ZC8bXo

While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot. I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.

I’m very happy that the CBC is on the story and published this Evan Dyer piece. Now is the time to take the Trump admin’s destabilization tactics seriously. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

One-Time Passcodes

Please enjoy my cartoon for Friday's Toronto Star

The US seeks price floors with allies to build ex-China mineral supply chains. If US allies and trading partners start pricing US political risk alongside Chinese leverage, Western minerals coordination will get much harder to sustain. My latest at @piie.com. www.piie.com/blogs/realti...

Want to know what's in all of Trump's trade deals? We combed through all of them, so you don't have to. Our tracker will be updated as more texts are released. Check it out here on @cfr.org: www.cfr.org/articles/tra...

As we unpack some of the details of the of yesterdays mineral ministerial, who wasnt there is as interesting as who was. Notable non participants are Chile, Indonesia and South Africa, latter of which was likely not invited but all are important mineral producers.

There are better and still easy-to-use alternatives to Substack. No excuse not to change platforms.

A year later. Are we prepared? A counterfactual: After the April federal election, PM Carney announced the creation of a Royal Commission on Securing Canada’s Future, commencing on Canada Day 2025, to ➡️facilitate a broad public dialogue ➡️mobilize existing expertise 🧵 www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

🇪🇺 Tensions over Greenland and US President Trump’s now-rescinded threats to impose additional tariffs on European goods have revived discussion in Brussels on the EU’s Anti‑Coercion Instrument (ACI) to bolster the bloc’s trade and economic security.

And the thing about taking a transactional approach to Canada's foreign policy is that there are other countries, other people on the other side of these transactions. And they will remember exactly how they were treated by a self-interested Canada. Not exactly a smart way to build alliances.

Every development minister comes to their portfolio with ideas. Then gets told there's no money. And in fact, there's actually cuts, sorry about that To cheer up the sad minister, officials then dangle 'private sector' in front of the minister www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/02/02/d...

The Illinois Department of Public Health sidestepped the federal government this week by independently joining the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). It is the second state to do so, after California joined the network last month. trib.al/0ecIsxF

Your periodic reminder that U.S. tariffs are approximately four times higher now than pre-Trump. What has that done for you?

Isn’t it comparing an entire menu with one dish?

ICYMI: senior economist @marclee.bsky.social said the numbers reported by the IMF and Tombe are based on a “flawed methodology.” “Those numbers don’t make any sense based on what we know about internal trade,” said Lee. “It’s vastly overestimated.” www.timescolonist.com/economy-law-...

Making aid conditional on doing business with Canada is not much different than Trump’s transactional approach.

Asked a friend who is a top ag researcher if these historic research stations still have value: he says the ROI at these sites is estimated at 35:1 and they’re highly responsive to farmer needs. This seems like a mistake www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/02/n...

"’Backwards’ was my first thought," said Cathy Holtslander, director of research and policy at the National Farmers Union. "Obviously, they made these cuts without knowing what they were doing."

Liam is home now and we are grateful to @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social for traveling to Minneapolis with him and his dad. Welcome home Liam ❤️❤️

Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"? Well, it happens they were doing exactly that. www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...

There are two particular problems with the EU's protectionist proposals around industry. One is to continue giving the impression that China's main mistake in its eyes was to succeed. The other is the lack of evidence that what the EU is proposing is why China succeeded.

The Kahnawà:ke Nation has sent Carney a letter regarding the speech he gave at the Plains of Abraham a few weeks ago. It is very good and I think people should read it. Press release: kahnawake.com/open-letter-...

There’s a lot that’s awful in the world right now. Tonight, I’m thinking of my hometown of Oshawa, which is losing 1200 GM jobs being transferred to the US as a result of Trump’s assault on Canada’s auto manufacturing. It’s so unnecessary and destructive. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

My American colleagues and friends dislike it when I liken the course their country is on to what happened in Russia in the early 2000s. It’s a comparison that’s getting harder and harder to avoid…

Well, whaddayaknow, that US trade deficit figure for October looks like a rogue month. Incidentally the US has been trying to make tariffs bring back manufacturing for as long as the UK has been trying to make Brexit work. Same level of success. Same denial. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/b...

Checkout the new WTO Data Portal: a single, consolidated access point for all datasets across the organization—creating a centralized, user-focused platform.

This news brings back good memories! See the paper @sarahobolt.bsky.social and I wrote a bit more than 15 years ago. It appears to still be relevant.

He’s much better at extortion and corruption than management. And to think that a lot Americans voted for him because he was a businessman…