“This place is in my blood,” Filosa says in a LinkedIn post celebrating his new role. Now 51 and an alumnus of Politecnico Di Milano, he launched his career at Fiat as a quality control supervisor in Spain. A mentee of legendary Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, he built an international career in Brazil, Argentina, and the US.

When Stellantis, the Italian, French, and American behemoth, was created in 2021, Filosa became South American COO. Two years later, he took the helm of the Jeep brand in Detroit. More recently, he added two crowns, COO of the Americas and worldwide chief quality officer at the parent company, which has a portfolio of 16 well-known brands that includes Peugeot, Citroen, Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati.

His appointment underscores the growing influence of the Italian shareholders within the company. When Stellantis was created, it had two heads: John Elkann, who became board chair, scion of the founding Italian Agnelli family; and Tavares as CEO, representing the French Peugeot family’s interest. With Filosa’s promotion, with the blessing of the French directors.

“We unanimously welcome Antonio’s appointment,” vice chair Robert Peugeot said.

The new chief faces a formidable list of challenges: tariff uncertainties, market-share losses, an electric vehicle transition, and economic instability. Auto sales declined through 2023 and 2024 as the company kept prices high. For the first quarter of this year, Stellantis suffered a 14% decrease in revenue.

Dealers in the US, who openly criticized the previous CEO’s strategy, nevertheless are celebrating the arrival of a new boss who likes to quote his mentor, Marchionne: “Mediocrity is not worth the trip.” Filosa adds on LinkedIn, “Let’s win this one together.”

Simo, 39, is already a veteran of Silicon Valley. A graduate of the French business school HEC Paris, she began her US career as an intern at eBay. She then spent a decade at Meta before taking the helm of Instacart in 2021, where she navigated the end of the Covid disruption for the online grocery app and prepared its 2023 IPO.

She anticipated staying several more years at Instacart; but when Altman called, she says, “The ability to lead such an important part of our collective future was a hard opportunity to pass up.” Introduced to Altman by fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg, she joined the board of OpenAI in March of last year and helped Altman complete a recent $40 billion fundraising led by Japan’s SoftBank.

Leaving her position at Instacart on good terms, she participated in the selection of her successor, Chris Rogers, who will officially become CEO after having served as the company’s chief business officer.

Along the way, Simo has acquired a reputation as a turn- around expert, adept at leading large teams. That skill set will not be out of place at OpenAI, which has grown exponentially—it attracts 5.1 billion monthly hits—but is bleed- ing cash. Simo must figure out how to turn the company profitable in the coming years and then help it go public.

Flash back to last year, when China was one of the three largest destinations for US agricultural products. According to the Department of Agriculture, these exports repre- sented close to $25 billion in value in 2024. They are unlikely to reach that number this year.

In March, President Xi Jinping announced extra tariffs of 15% on US chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton and a 10% increase on sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. When Trump raised the bar, China followed with tariffs of 125% on US soybeans.

Chinese consumers will not starve. Brazilian farmers can easily replace American products with their own soybeans and corn. They also have chicken and eggs. Fortunately for them, Brazilian chicken farms escaped the bird flu outbreak, and Brazilian farmers are ready to ship their birds to Asia.

Japan could be another new outlet. Japan imported 40% of its beef from the US last year, but new American tariffs on auto imports have offended Tokyo. Why not try Brazilian meat? That’s what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suggested on a recent trip to Japan. The message is the same in Europe. In December, the EU signed a deal with Mercosur that would eliminate 90% of tariffs between Europe and the South American group of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. The agreement awaits ratification by the constituent EU states; Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad visited the EU at the end of March to emphasize the benefits of the deal.

Ironically, the Trump-created new world order could also support increased exports of Brazilian shoes to the US. Americans, deprived of cheap Chinese footwear, could switch to Brazilian models. With its abundant supply of leather, Brazil is the biggest producer of shoes outside of Asia.

It was not supposed to be a close race.

In December, Poilievre and the Conservatives were easily leading the polls against the unpopular Trudeau. But US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans and his threat to annex Canada shattered the political landscape and the parties are now running neck-and-neck. Carney is portraying himself as the right person to defend the nation against US imperialism.

“Our sovereignty faces the greatest threats in generations,” he said in a press conference in Halifax. “We’re defending our borders, our sovereignty, our minerals, our water, our land, our way of life.”

Carney, 60, a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, has never previously served as an elected official, but his finance background appeared to reassure electors. His opponent Poilievre, 45, is a seasoned politician who has already run in seven elections. He, too, is fighting a rhetorical war against US threats via social media.

Nevertheless, Poilievre would like to bring the debate back to Canadian grounds. He talks about rising housing costs and inflation. If elected, he says he will implement a C$14 billion  ($9.8 billion) tax cut, saving an average two-income family C$1,800 a year.

Carney’s program would only save C$800 for a similar family but Canadians don’t appear to mind as much as they might have in past elections. They note that he opposes Trudeau’s unpopular consumer carbon tax and like his sports analogies. “In the trade war, just like in hockey, we will win,” he said in Halifax. François Philippe Champagne, Carney’s newly appointed finance minister, conveyed a similar message in March: “We’re not like some small country that you can push around. You’re picking on the wrong guy.”

Given the deep integration of the US auto industry’s supply chain with its northern and southern neighbors, any tariff increase after the pause would come at a significant cost.

General Motors, the largest US automaker, produces 40% of its vehicles in Mexico and Canada. According to the Cato Institute, Mexican GM plants exported more than 700,000 vehicles to the US last year. Ford is less exposed. Only 358,000 of its vehicles came from Mexico in 2024. Stellantis—maker of the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram product lines—followed with 314,000 vehicles. The Big Three’s foreign counterparts, Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen, are also heavily invested in North America and would suffer as well.

Bernstein Research calculates that a 25% tariff would burden the auto industry with a $110 million daily surcharge; and Jefferies, the investment bank, estimates the tariffs would add $2,700 to the average price of a vehicle. Retail prices would go up, prodding consumers to buy less.

“The North American auto industry is highly integrated, and the imposition of tariffs would be detrimental to American jobs, investment, and consumers,” says Jennifer Safavian, CEO of Autos Drive America, the lobby representing foreign carmakers.

Big brands are used to assembling vehicles in the US, Canada, and Mexico. They procure essential components, including motors, transmissions, and simple components, from across the border. Some parts cross back and forth five or six times before they are incorporated into a finished vehicle. A 2025 Cato tariff study tracked a capacitor—an electrical component in a circuit board—on its journey. It was first bought in Colorado and shipped to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico to be included in a circuit board. The component was spotted in El Paso, Texas; and Matamoros, Mexico. It finished its trajectory in two seat-manufacturing plants, in Arlington, Texas; and Mississauga, Ontario.

Typically, businesses are required to document their losses, file a claim, and wait months or even years for reimbursement. Insurance companies must meticulously assess damages, verify that a claim was not excluded from the policy, and determine how much to pay. Midsize companies and multifamily property owners can go bankrupt waiting for reimbursement.

Some businesses are choosing another option that promises to get them help faster: parametric policies. Allied Market Research forecasts that the global parametric insurance market, which totaled $18 billion in 2023, will grow to more than $34 billion by 2033.

Parametric insurance has been around for years, covering catastrophes like tropical cyclones, other weather-related events, and earthquakes. These policies’ main advantage is a faster payout, since the insurer agrees to pay a predefined sum when a specific peril reaches a predefined magnitude. Payment is triggered by parameters that can be measured quickly, such as rainfall, hurricane category, or wind speed.

The insurer knows how much the insurance subscriber will pay, and the subscriber understands the amount of coverage it will get. Both are aware of the conditions necessary to green-light the payment.

Parametric policies are expensive: A $1 million wildfire insurance policy could require $50,000 in annual premium payments. But the increased frequency of natural disasters
is emphasizing the need for faster procedures. Ten years ago, wildfires were considered secondary perils and not regarded as existential threats. The 2016 Fort McMurray fire in Alberta, Canada, changed that attitude within the insurance industry: The fire caused $3 billion in losses, which at that time was considered enormous.

Since then, wildfire costs in the US have multiplied, totaling $67 billion in insured losses in 2024, not counting the 2025 fires, according to reinsurer Munich Re.

A 41-year-old Boston University graduate with a PhD in economics from Harvard and now a senior strategist at hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital, Miran is one of the rare economists who believes that 20% tariffs could benefit the US.

During Trump’s first administration, Miran was a senior adviser at the US Treasury Department. Since then, he has been an adjunct fellow at the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, where he loudly criticized President Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

There are “bad predictions that tariffs will cause horrible inflation, or the president can’t affect the dollar,” he posted on social media. “Both are false.”

Miran suggests that under a steeper tariff regime, importers would reduce margins on their imported goods to avoid losing market share and not increase their prices much. He acknowledges that foreign countries could retaliate with tariffs on US goods.

Reshaping global trade carries risks. Nevertheless, the threat of tariffs against China, Canada, Mexico, or the EU could be used as a negotiating tool to extract concessions. For example, if China does not curb exports of fentanyl precursors, the US could retaliate with new tariffs. If the European Union wants to remain under the US defense umbrella, it would have to absorb higher duties from Washington.

For Miran, such gambits can make the US richer.

“It’s about time we actually tackled problems instead of letting them slide,” he wrote on social media in November. Later, he doubled down on his ability to “create a booming, non-inflationary economy that brings prosperity to all Americans.”

Against other economists’ fears of price increases and a stronger dollar, Marin proposes the “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” modeled on the Reagan-era Plaza Accord. In exchange for lowering tariffs, he told American Conservative magazine, foreign countries would have to make certain concessions, such as respecting American intellectual property and, in the case of NATO members, accepting greater defense burden-sharing.

A few days before Trump signed the order from the stage of a Washington, D.C., sports arena, Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo announced their retreat from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a coalition formed by the UN in 2021 to reduce carbon emissions.

As if the exodus of American banks was not enough, five Canadian neighbors joined them: BMO, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank, and TD Bank. Meanwhile, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, abandoned a sister initiative, the Alliance for Net Zero, which brought together firms that collectively hold $130 trillion of assets under management.

The second great US retreat—the first being Trump’s 2017 withdrawal, which the subsequent Biden administration reversed—will have an immediate impact on other international efforts to curb global warming. The US bankrolls 21% of the budget for the UN Climate Secretariat, which leads climate change negotiations. National and international spending by the private and public sectors combined reached $175 billion annually in 2021 and 2022, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden.

At least a portion of this funding will disappear.

Additionally, Trump promises to erase the US’s national emissions-cutting plan. Tax credits for C02-reduction projects, manufacturing targets for electric vehicles, and offshore wind leases could also be suspended. Some US states, such as California, claim they will continue their climate efforts.

American bankers are in a delicate position. They don’t want to annoy elected Republican officials, who are feared advocates of the oil and gas industry, but at the same time they cannot alienate their EU clients. Companies must adopt stricter climate targets on the old continent to comply with European reporting rules.

Will American banks risk losing these clients? The Net Zero Banking Alliance still boasts more than 130 member institutions ready to offer services.         

Atkins seems to be a shoo in, nevertheless, don’t expect the new top securities cop to smoothly follow his predecessor’s strategy. His supporters hope that he will adopt a lighter regulatory approach towards topics such as climate change and diversity. Above all, he is expected to reverse heavy cryptocurrency regulations. Atkins, the founder of Global Partners, a fintech consultancy boutique, advises his clients on issues related to crypto and digital assets. He is also a member of the advisory board for Securitize, a firm that promotes the use of digital tokens.

Gensler, his predecessor, didn’t hesitate to file suit against Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. Atkins, a friend of the industry, could find a settlement that is favorable to Coinbase.

Trump’s appointees distinguish themselves by their conciliatory approach. That’s also the case with Andrew Ferguson who is currently the Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission. He will succeed Lina Khan as chair of that agency.

Being already in place, the Senate will not need to confirm Ferguson, when Khan steps down. Ferguson traveled to Mar-a-Lago to plead his case. His message: the new chair will abandon tougher standards for acquisitions. Khan was emboldened to challenge even the biggest tech companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon or Meta. Ferguson, on the other hand, who was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a chief counsel to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, will adopt a looser regulatory approach. Nonetheless, he will confront social media sites that police conservatory voices. Ferguson wrote on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, that “The FTC must protect Americans’ freedom of speech online.”

The threatened increase in tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that could reach as much as 45% boosted the search for joint ventures and direct investments in Europe. Last spring the Chinese car maker Chery committed to a €400 million investment with Spanish Ebro EV Motors to produce vehicles in Barcelona. The battery supplier CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) is negotiating with car manufacturer Stellantis to expand its battery production. The €2.5 billion investment should land near Zaragoza in the Aragon region. Chinese car maker MG is also looking for a plant in Europe. Spain, Hungary and the Czech Republic are on its short list.

BYD, another car maker, is building a plant in Szeged, Hungary, that is expected to open in 2025. And Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, a Chinese automotive company that owns Volvo and Polestar, is searching for a possible site in Europe.

Spain, Hungary and other neighboring countries expect thousands of job creations and access to EV cutting edge technology because China is said to be one step ahead of its competitors. On the other hand, Chinese investors are buying the “made in Europe” tag that will spare them heavy trade tariffs. According to data firm Mergermarket, Chinese buyouts of European assets has climbed more than 48% in 2024, compared to 2023 to reach €9.4 billion. Chinese investors are not focused solely on Europe. They also look for the “made in America” label that will protect them from future Trump tariffs. For example, Gotion is building a $2.4 billion plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to produce lithium battery components. And CATL is negotiating for battery investments with Ford and General Motors. Geely, the owner of a Volvo plant in Charleston, South Carolina, is opening its doors to another brand of the group, Polestar.