🌏 Tax cuts vs. tariffs

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ByQuartz Staff

Published8 hours ago

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Image for article titled 🌏 Tax cuts vs. tariffs — Photo: Mark Wilson (Getty Images)

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Capital meets Capitol. JPMorgan Chase is getting into the geopolitics business, offering clients advice on how to “navigate the increasingly complex” landscape.

Trade-offs — literally

House Republicans are sprinting toward a Memorial Day deadline to pass a sprawling $3.8 trillion domestic policy bill that extends tax cuts and restores business deductions — partially paid for by slashes to clean energy credits and social safety net spending. Speaker Mike Johnson has called the bill “rocket fuel” for the economy.

But there’s one tiny problem: tariffs.

Goldman Sachs and the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation both found that the tax boosts and tariffs would essentially cancel each other out (or worse), making this a potential exercise in economic futility.

Even some Republicans are sounding the alarm. Farmers are reporting lost overseas market access. Retailers are bracing for higher prices. And analysts are warning that families and firms would see a significant tariff-related economic drag in 2026.

Still, Trump appears mostly unfazed. “I think we’re going to get everything we want,” he said Tuesday when rallying GOP support on Capitol Hill. But whether that includes actual growth — or just political optics — is another question entirely. Quartz’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig has more on how “rocket fuel” could become a GOP fire hazard.

Jony, be good

OpenAI may have just bought its future. The company’s $6.5 billion acquisition of io, the hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, marks a major leap for the ChatGPT-maker into the world of physical products.

The all-stock deal gives OpenAI a team of 50-plus hardware minds and a dedicated division to build what CEO Sam Altman calls “a new kind of computing form factor.” Details are scarce, but the goal appears to be devices that move “beyond screens.” Think: screenless devices, wearable AIs, and camera-based assistants.

Altman described what the companies are working on as “a totally new kind of thing” and said the first products are expected to launch in 2026.

The announcement of the acquisition rattled Apple shareholders (stock dipped 1.8%) and now puts pressure on the Silicon Valley giant to prove that it’s still the innovation leader. With ChatGPT already integrated into Apple’s ecosystem, the companies aren’t enemies — but they may not stay friends for long. Quartz’s Shannon Carroll has more on OpenAI’s ambitious leap.