Respond to Trump with more welfare state

Good morning!

How do you have the week? Don’t you have the feeling of being somewhat lost? As if we did not know what new bravuconada we are going to wake up every morning, if not knowing what can happen in the next few hours. It is not that we are like Alberto Núñez Feijóo, that he has a good gallimatisms and does not find out to the Mazón crisis in the Dana, but the comings and goings of Donald Trump are causing an uncertainty that begins to take its toll on the economy of the world, including that of the United States itself.

Abusers cannot be answered in good ways. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, insisted in recent days to maintain the hand of Europe laid to the United States, despite the continuous and bad modes of Trump. With the entry into force of the threat of the US president to launch a 25% tariff to aluminum and steel, the European Union has finally stopped behaving like a subaltern and has decided that they will be imposed again from April 1 the tariff Bourbon or Harley-Davidson motorcycles). In a second phase, which will enter into force in the middle of next month, more products will be included.

The idea of ​​the European Commission is that the tariffs are proportional. According to their calculations, the rates imposed by Trump will affect EU exports worth 26,000 million euros. European tariffs recovered against US products affect goods worth 8,000 million euros. Subsequently, other products will be added in the middle of the month, worth 18,000 million to equate the commercial punishment.

There is a very interesting idea in the European Union tariffs approach: “hitting where it hurts” to the White House, especially in the economy of states that vote Republican (Alabama, Virginia or Georgia, although it will finally affect everyone). “In our answer we try to be intelligent and try to hit where it hurts. That means we have a list of products that have a high iconic or symbolic value, which do not cost us much, but that will cost the US, ”they explain.

In addition, these are products that have an easy alternative to buy in European markets or in other countries. To which we must add that the tariffs that have designed in the United States for European products “are not very intelligent” because they include raw materials necessary for their production chain and will affect a ‘autocastigo’ worth 6,000 million euros. Here are some keys to the EU tariffs to US symbolic products and states that voted for Trump.

The commercial war is served. We had to respond to Trump’s abuses, but in these contests there are always losses by both parties. For this reason, you have to look for other solutions that do not go to respond with the same lack of sight as Trump. In this sense, both from a group of economists and from other areas of European institutions other actions are requested: that internal barriers are reduced and the internal trade of the European Union is reinforced, which follows with the policy of decreases of interest rates by the European Central Bank, which will allow greater consumption by families and will facilitate the investments of companies, and that taxes are established USA, so that they finance the European social model. Here we explain other weapons that the European Union can use against Trump’s tariffs.

In this struggle what should not be lost is the essence of Europe: the welfare state. There is no better response to the bluffs of the ultra American than the defense of social justice, than the impulse of a system that protects the weakest, than the construction of a solidarity Europe.

In front of Trump’s ultra neoliberalism, more social Europe.

Every time the bread goes up

The president of the Government announced that we would advance the commitment to reach 2% GDP in defense spending before 2029. The absence of budgets has not been an obstacle to increasing these items

Carlos body
– Minister of Economy

Controversial words of the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body. It is true that we are in a moment of uncertainty and confusion with the geopolitical situation and that Russia is a threat, even greater with the new positioning against Ukraine of the United States with Donald Trump in the White House. However, armament expense has always been a delicate issue in Spain, which should be well argued by the Government so that citizens arrive with all explanations, in addition to discussed and discussed in the Congress of Deputies. Here we tell you that the government does not see “an obstacle” in the absence of budgets to raise the expense in defense.

Precisely, the issue of European rearmament or the belligerent position of the United States against the European Union on commercial issues were some of the issues we discussed this Tuesday in the drafting of Eldiario.es before a group of partners and partners. Responsible for the European Commission in Spainof Oxfam Intermón And of the publication The world order. If you are interested in the issue here you can see the debate on how Europe faces economic uncertainty and Trump’s maneuvers.

The graph

We are tired of listening, especially in some television programs, that the main housing problems are occupation or delinquency in the payment of rent, but the data demonstrate again and again that they are tiny problems compared to the lack of access of citizens to housing. When the government decreed the suspension of evictions of vulnerable families by the pandemic, it also created a compensation mechanism for the affected owners. So if an owner stopped receiving an income for this measure, he could request compensation from public administrations. Although the right of the rights focuses on which the measure will leave the landlords in ruin, the reality is that the requests have been minimal: less than one in 10 affected have claimed these amounts, which total a total of 10.5 million euros. Here we explain that less than 10% owners have asked for compensation for the anti -skucios moratorium: “The figures do not speak of an alarm.”

The data

Amancio Ortega, owner and main shareholder of Inditex, is going to be embassy, ​​with the dividends that the fashion company will distribute. Inditex beat its sales and benefit records again in 2024, so that the Zara matrix earned 5,866 million euros, 9% more than at the end of the previous year. That means that Amancio Ortega will receive billions of euros again, since he controls about 60% of the capital. There are not only millmillonarios in the United States. Here we tell you that Amancio Ortega wins 3,104 million euros with Inditex that reaches a record of benefits and income.

This exorbitant income of some entrepreneurs coincides with the position, without much sense or real arguments, of the rights and some entrepreneurs against the increase in the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI). Since 2018, progressive governments have raised the minimum salary of 61%, from 735.9 euros (per month, taking into account 14 payments a year) in which the Mariano Rajoy Popular Party Executive left it to 1,184 euros recently approved. Economic evidence indicates that there is no problem due to the SMI rise, as we tell you, what happens is that the minimum salary is increasingly “normal”, and one of the consequences is that the Treasury has decided that some of their percectors pay IRPF for the first time in 2025. But they already admit it to the entrepreneurs: three out of four companies declare to the Bank of Spain that they have barely affected them.

Green that I love you green

Mining is again a thriving activity in our country. There are 14 key materials that are fundamental in the race for new technologies. The European Commission considers these rare priority lands to be competitive, which will force the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to launch the first National Exploration Program in Spain in more than half a century. The struggle is globally, this explains the bet of Donald Trump for the critical minerals that Ukraine has. Although there is always controversy due to the ecological impact of mining, it is also true that wind, solar and geothermal energy and energy storage necessary to meet the climatic objectives will require 3,000 million tons of minerals and metals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel or rare earths. In Extremadura alone there are 147 research permits for the search for raw materials in mining. Here we explain the constant growth of mining in Spain.

Entrepreneur

Geopolitical tensions are also translating into a greater hiring of military by private companies. Half of the authorizations granted to high positions of the Ministry of Defense by the Office of Conflicts of Interest since 2013, when the Transparency Law entered into force, have been given since in 2022 the war broke out in Ukraine. Oesia, with more than a dozen former military and former high positions; Together with Maxam, who in 2023 sold his defense subsidiary to the German giant Rheinmetall for 1.2 billion; or Indra, who has Angel Escribano as his new president after Murtra’s departure to Telefónica. Here we tell you how the private sector accelerates military signings in full boom in defense spending.

Public good

What is the representation of self -employed associations? How are your representatives chosen that they later sit at negotiation tables with the unions and the government? This week we have published a research report in which we reveal that the Association of Autonomous Workers (ATA) has held elections to elect their president in which the workers have voted, that is, some people whose salary depends on the person they have voted for. After 21 years in office, Lorenzo Amor was re -elected president of the Federation of Autonomous ATA. Much the workers who voted for him were taken by ATA Andalucía, who chairs his brother, Rafael Amor, who was a member of the Electoral Board, in charge of surveillance of the correct development of the elections. To better understand the figure of Lorenzo Amor here you have a profile that explains the career of the “politician” of the self-employed: of Ruiz-Mateos candidate to become strong in the Employers CEOE.

In this sense, these elections in Ata, in which only love was presented as a candidate, only have an explanation within the total war between the employers’ leaders in the SME elections. “I have been and the power, in quotes, also wears and generates uncertainty in many people. And then I want to know the support I have, ”said Lorenzo Amor. Too many doubts about the electoral process. Here you can read this research report by Laura Olías about the dozens of employees and their relatives that the employer of Autonomous ATA led to voting the re -election of Lorenzo Amor.

We like competition

In this section we bring you a series of articles from other media that have seemed interesting:

Here this newsletter ends. More economic news and analysis next Thursday. If you have proposals, complaints or ideas you can write to counterofferta@eldiario.es.

Good week!