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Three big shocks facing the global economy - Zanny Minton Beddoes
According to The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, 2025 is shaping to be a historic turning point defined by three massive global shocks. “Each of which is big enough for our grandchildren to have a chapter in their history books,” she warns on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.
The first is geopolitical: the United States, once the architect of the global alliance system, is now actively challenging—and possibly undermining—it. The second is economic: the U.S. has abandoned free trade in favor of escalating tariff wars, threatening the global trading system that has defined the past 80 years. And the third, perhaps most transformative, is technological: the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, which is reshaping industries and economies faster than governments can respond. The combination of these three forces, Beddoes argues, creates massive uncertainty with the potential for severe damage.
While acknowledging that some aspects of the Trump administration’s policies—such as cutting bureaucracy and rationalizing government—may have merit, Beddoes is deeply concerned about its overall trajectory. “I just find the combination of this… bullying, transactional approach, where the view is that your gain must be my loss… fundamentally misguided,” she says. With global institutions struggling to keep pace with these shifts, the question is no longer whether the old order will survive—it’s whether the world can build a new one before chaos takes hold.
Watch full episode: Trump’s trade war: Who really wins?
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
Trump is increasingly hostile to Europe, says Zanny Minton Beddoes
As Trump’s second term unfolds, European leaders are no longer just questioning America’s reliability—they’re beginning to worry that the US is actively hostile. Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes points to growing frustration across the continent, and it's not just about America's reliability on defense. Trump’s aggressive trade policies, including escalating tariffs on European goods, have compounded the rift. “You have an anger at the United States amongst its allies that is damaging,” Beddoes warns.
But beyond policy, it’s Trump’s approach to foreign relations that is sparking the greatest alarm. Beddoes argues that his White House operates with a “mafia mobster kind of foreign policy,” where allies are strong-armed rather than supported. The result? Europe is starting to hedge its bets, strengthening its own defense industries and reducing economic reliance on the U.S. If Trump continues treating allies like adversaries, they may start acting accordingly.
Watch full episode: Trump’s trade war: Who really wins?
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
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Trump’s trade war: Who really wins?
“Who benefits from this trade war?” That’s the question that Zanny Minton Beddoes rhetorically poses midway through her interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World. And it’s the question at the heart of this episode. US President Donald Trump has a simple answer: We do. The rest of the world, though, may beg to differ. So how does Trump’s tit-for-tat tariff war threaten to reshape the global economy? And is it necessarily a bad thing if it does?
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
The economic waves of Trump 2.0: Insights from The Economist's Zanny Minton Beddoes
Listen: On the GZERO World Podcast with Ian Bremmer, we ask The Economist's editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes: Did Wall Street get President Trump wrong?
Candidate Trump promised to lower taxes and drastically reduce government regulation. This message resonated as much with Wall Street as it did with Main Street. After surviving, if not thriving, under President Trump's first term in office, the business community no longer feared Trump's unpredictability. They overlooked his fixation on tariffs and his promises of mass deportations.
However, the first months of Trump 2.0 have been a time of economic warfare and market volatility. President Trump slapped tariffs on America's largest trading partners and closest allies and began to make good on a promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants. So where is this all heading, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
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- Graphic Truth: Who Wins From A US-China Trade War? ›
- Larry Summers: Trump's trade war the "worst self-inflicted wound since WWII" - GZERO Media ›
Will US/China tensions lead to military conflict? Analysis from Zanny Minton Beddoes
On the latest episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer discusses the mounting tensions between the US and China with Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist. As US hawks talk tough on how to respond to China's increased aggression—Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea—Beddoes argues now is the time to pursue a more cohesive and long-term diplomatic strategy. "I would hope that…even with countries who have a fundamentally different ideology that you don't trust, that you don't share, that you frankly find abhorrent, that you can find ways of dealing with those countries, not just to prevent a descent into military conflict, but also to tackle the global challenges that we need to tackle," she says. "And what's really profoundly depressing about this particular moment is that in the face of the worst pandemic since 1918, which is ineluctably global in nature and demands a global response. We haven't had that."
US/China pandemic blame game
President Trump calls COVID-19 the "China Flu." Chinese diplomats have hurled accusations that the virus came from the US military. And even in more rational discourse, there is ongoing global debate about what responsibility China has to the world for failing to disclose and respond to a new health threat before it left its borders. But in a new interview with GZERO World host Ian Bremmer, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, says the blame game is futile and counterproductive at this point. "There's an enormous amount that we need to work together on. It's not just getting a vaccine, it's making sure that the vaccine is globally available. And one would hope that you would have the world's two biggest economies working hand in glove," she told Bremmer.
From bad to worse: US/China relations with Zanny Minton Beddoes
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer explores the escalating tension between the world's two biggest geopolitical and economic players—the US and China. With guest Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Bremmer discusses the modern history of China after the fall of the Soviet Union and why another Cold War might be inevitable.
Podcast: From Bad to Worse: US/China Relations with Zanny Minton Beddoes
Listen: On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer explores the escalating tension between the world's two biggest geopolitical and economic players—the US and China. With guest Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Bremmer discusses the modern history of China after the fall of the Soviet Union and why another Cold War might be inevitable.
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