Publications: Notes at the Margin

Donald Trump's Oil Conundrum; Making America Zimbabwe (February 17, 2025)

 

This week our report focuses first on the oil conundrum confronting the Trump administration, a challenge complicated by his proposal to evict Palestinians from Gaza.

 

Second, we discuss the economic track record of authoritarians. President Trump has been compared to China’s President Xi and Russia’s President Putin. However, there have been many authoritarian leaders over the last century. Some achieved economic success. Others led their countries into financial catastrophe. We suggest the United States is now following the path pioneered by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, whose regime produced a fifty percent drop in the country’s GDP between 2000 and 2008. Mugabe destroyed his nation’s economy through cronyism, dictatorial actions, and incompetence. We worry the Trump administration will do the same to the US and global economies. Oil producers across the world will suffer the consequences.

 

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