• President Trump must provide a roadmap to investors on how he intends to chart a way out of the current tariff downturn before it spirals out of control, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him, according to a report in Politico.

President Trump needs to temper his tough trade talk by adding achievable and measurable goals that can provide the basis for discussions, he was advised, or equity markets will continue to sell off.

According to a report by Politico, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged his boss to provide greater clarity to investors about his ultimate intentions. Up to this point, the administration has often employed contradictory arguments to explain the motives and ends of the historic tariff hikes scheduled to take effect on April 9. Trump and other administration members have alternately said the tariffs are meant to raise money, bring manufacturing back to the U.S., offer leverage in negotiations, or become permanent.

“Bessent’s view was ‘the markets will keep melting unless you shift,” one source told the publication, relaying the message of the secretary’s appeal. “You have to talk about negotiating and what the endgame is.”

The benchmark S&P 500 index is down 16% since Trump’s inauguration in late January, wiping out over $3 trillion in value off equity markets as investors worry a global trade war could spiral out of control. The slide marks the worst 10-week start under a new president since George W. Bush took office in 2001 just as the dotcom bubble burst. 

Fearing the worst, billionaire hedge fund manager and vocal Trump supporter Bill Ackman pleaded with the White House on Sunday not to declare “global economic war against the whole world at once” and instead postpone the April 9th tariff hike.

The White House didn’t respond to a Fortune request for comment by press time.

Tariff surprises

A major reason for the sell-off was the surprising application of the tariffs. Trump did not reveal the contours of his tariffs until shortly before they were about to go into effect, and his decision to impose steep, across-the board tariffs even on territories inhabited largely by penguins took Wall Street by surprise. 

“Markets were caught sleepwalking,” UBS chief strategist Bhanu Baweja told reporters on Monday. 

Baweja said investors mistakenly believed Trump only sought to use tariffs as credible leverage to negotiate a series of deals, like he did with the NAFTA-successor USMCA five years ago, rather than as an ideologically desirable tool in and of themselves. 

The tariffs were also far more punitive than expected, with the effective tariff rate surging tenfold, Baweja added: “These are numbers we haven’t seen since the 1900s.”

The White House further worried investors by basing the new import duties on trade imbalances that had nothing at all to do with tariff reciprocity, even as it denied this. 

Finally, comments by a Trump official on Monday—suggesting tariffs could be paused—briefly led to intense investor confusion.

Playing hardball

For now the White House is playing hardball, even as trading partners like the European Union attempt to find common ground. 

When Brussels offered to cut its tariffs on industrial goods to zero if the U.S. followed suit, Trump rejected the proposal on Monday. Once more he claimed the EU—which has preserved peace on the once war-torn continent—was in reality founded as a means to take advantage of the United States.

But he may have taken Bessent’s suggestion to heart, as he made a demand that could pave the way for a negotiated settlement: Europe must commit to purchasing $350 billion in U.S. oil and gas. 

According to the latest figures published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis last month, the U.S. trade deficit with the EU increased by 29% last year to $161.1 billion. That puts it roughly midway between U.S. trading partners Vietnam and Mexico, and far below the $263.3 billion deficit the U.S. maintains with China.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Good morning. As tariffs are set to put pressure on supply chains, pricing remains top of mind for corporate leaders.

“Tariff trouble: Consumer goods most affected by reciprocal rates,” is a new analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Trump administration’s new tariffs will add 10 percentage points to import duties from all countries except Canada and Mexico. And this will exclude sectors such as metals, chemicals, and autos, which will have their own tariffs. That means the supply chains most affected will be finished consumer goods, including clothing, toys, and smartphones, according to Chris Rogers, head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence. These sectors face additional duties in the order of 27 to 30 percentage points on a weighted average basis, he noted.

Corporate supply chain managers are likely to incorporate the new tariffs into their pricing and cost-negotiation strategies in the near term, Rogers said. Options to reshore sourcing are limited due to the “sheer breadth of coverage of the duties,” he said.

Corporate leaders have been navigating tariff uncertainty for quite some time. So it continues to be a dominant topic on earnings calls. I checked in with John Butters, VP and senior earnings analyst at FactSet, for his latest analysis. From Dec. 31 through March 14, the terms “tariff” or “tariffs” were mentioned on the earnings calls of 263 of the S&P 500 companies, Butters said. Overall, 487 of the S&P 500 companies conducted earnings calls over this period.

And, from March 15 through April 4, 16 of the 18 S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings calls mentioned “tariff” or “tariffs,” he added.

As we head into mid-April, when many companies are scheduled to release their Q1 2025 earnings reports and conduct conference calls, talk of tariffs will certainly come up, but perhaps discussed from a different angle.

In recent earnings calls, firms were vocal in discussing strategies and “the net negativity of tariffs,” according to the S&P Global report. However, companies may be cautious in making short-term announcements to “avoid reactions from the Trump administration,” the report states.

“We’d expect firms to talk about price increases for customers and cost negotiations with suppliers as a major strategy during the earnings call season,” Rogers said. “Discussions on long-term plans, including whether to move manufacturing and sourcing to the U.S., could be muted given the ongoing uncertainty on the final picture for tariffs.”

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Office politics are back—and they’re nastier than ever. It’s not just commutes and water cooler chats that have made a comeback thanks to RTO mandates. Backdoor tactics and quiet takedowns are also experiencing a revival. While Gen Z and millennials are most guilty of sabotaging their colleagues’ careers to get ahead, even bosses are at it.

Safe behind screens and Slack threads, we forgot what the office was really like. Now, thanks to return-to-office mandates, many workers are being reacquainted with a less nostalgic part of office life: backstabbing.

Turns out, increased face time has come with a side of finger-pointing, credit-stealing, and calculated sabotage.

New research from Resume Now finds 61% of employees have been thrown under the bus at work—with nearly a third saying they see it happen weekly.

As for who’s doing the dirty work? While no generation is blameless, Gen Z and millennials are twice as likely to be perceived as the ones pulling these moves, compared to boomers and Gen X.

Most of the 1,000-plus American workers surveyed said their peers are to blame for sabotaging their success. 

But even those put in charge of helping their young hires thrive are guilty of playing dirty to stay ahead. One in four workers say their manager has set them up to fail. 

It’s no wonder then, that the youngest generation of workers is taking note, seeing this as the playbook for success in the corporate world; The survey reveals that career ambitions and self-preservation are the primary drivers behind this toxic behavior. A staggering 40% surveyed admitted they’ve sabotaged a colleague to get ahead.

Watch out for these toxic tactics

Whether it’s coming from your boss or your coworker, the report highlights the most prevalent workplace sabotage tactics currently being used:

• Blaming others for their mistakes 
• Sharing negative information about a coworker to leadership 
• Withholding critical information that could help a colleague succeed
• Deliberately setting up a person to fail

“Rather than focusing on generational differences, employees should prioritize fostering a culture of accountability and support. Open discussions about workplace expectations, values, professional ethics, and conflict resolution can help reduce these toxic dynamics.

“Blame culture isn’t just an occasional workplace annoyance,” the report warns. “It can damage professional relationships, lower morale, and create a toxic environment where employees feel they must watch their backs instead of working together.”

The report’s author and career coach, Keith Spencer, says employees should document their contributions and be transparent with their wider team about what they’re doing at work, to avoid getting stung.  

RTO has turned sour—now conflict resolution is a top skill to have

Bad behavior isn’t just back—it’s thriving.

Just last month, a separate study revealed that “workplace incivility,” has surged 21.5%, draining companies of $2.1 billion every single day in lost productivity. 

During the first quarter of 2025 alone, American workplaces saw over 208 million instances of office hostility daily, including shaming, micromanaging, and gaslighting—and the researchers pointed directly to return-to-office mandates as the fuel for this toxic fire.

As workers are pushed back into physical spaces together, they’re simply being  “exposed to more in-person interactions that will bring more encounters with and opportunities to act uncivil than virtual settings often offer,” Derrick Scheetz, a researcher at the Society for Human Resource Management, said in the report. 

It’s gotten so bad that conflict resolution is the hottest skill to have right now, according to LinkedIn.

“Office politics can be unavoidable, but employees can navigate them effectively by building positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors and building strong conflict-resolution skills to address problems directly rather than letting them escalate,” Resume Now’s report echoes. 

Sabotaging probably won’t actually help Gen Z climb the ladder

The top reasons workers and managers alike are turning to dirty tactics are: to get ahead, protect their reputation, and curry favor with senior leaders.

But sabotaging the competition isn’t actually the shortcut to success that people think it is. 

As Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger, previously warned, backstabbing and office politics rarely pay off in the long run. Christou, who started his career flipping burgers at McDonald’s for $3 an hour, said that by focusing on being the best—without “shortcutting” his peers or “stabbing them in the back”—the promotions swiftly followed.

“I won’t stitch people up on my way up the ladder. And I think that has, over time, really reaped rewards,” he told Fortune. Having been promoted into positions where he was often managing people far more experienced and older than himself, it meant they “celebrated” his success—rather than feeling robbed and getting their own back.

Likewise, Kurt Geiger’s CEO went from cleaning toilets to running the Steve Madden-owned multimillion-dollar accessories brand by befriending his bosses—and making them look good.

“You don’t want to be there chipping away at your boss negatively,” Neil Clifford told Fortune. “You want them to be fabulous—you want them to love you and want to help you.

“I didn’t want to get them fired. I want them to get promoted,” he adds. “I’d rather step into their shoes than push them over the cliff.”

To that end, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes that being someone others want to support is a major career accelerator. 

“I think people would be surprised how infrequently people have great attitudes,” he said. “I think it makes a big difference.”

“You pick up advocates and mentors much more quickly,” he added. “People want those people to succeed—and it’s very controllable.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com