The writer is a former US Treasury secretary
The stock market keeps reaching new highs: the S&P is up more than 7.3 per cent since the Iran war began. About 85 per cent of companies in the index reported first-quarter earnings that beat first-quarter expectations, and analysts have raised profit forecasts in recent months.
However, these gains come alongside actions by the Trump administration that I believe will have significant adverse consequences. The administration did not just launch a war in Iran that destabilised energy markets, President Donald Trump threatened to annihilate the country’s citizens. He repeatedly voiced support for a criminal probe into outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell that was a thinly veiled attack on central bank independence.