Almost 9 months into Trump II: Tariffs, Trade wars, and the future of (Switzerland in) Europe
With the (not so) new man in the White House, it has been a busy first three quarters of 2025 for the global economics punditry. Such are the times that even the writer of this blog was occasionally asked to leave the ivory tower to comment on current affairs. While I found it difficult to update this space in real time over the last couple of months, here is a round-up of my recent media contributions:
An article by Jürg Meier in the NZZ in which I commented about the macroeconomic uncertainty created by Liberation day: NZZ 06 April — NZZ‘s Albert Steck about Apple and the global reconfiguration of supply chains (NZZ 26 April) — And Simon Schmidt quoting me on some of key questions of US trade policy in two articles for Tagesanzeiger (here and here).
Just around Trump’s “liberation day”, my own employer’s UZH News published a series on “Europe’s future“, drawing on insights from UZH-researchers across disciplines. One of the pieces was a joint interview with my colleague and economic historian Tobias Straumann on why Europe should have more confidence in itself. See here and, in German, here.
The Sunday Times also had a piece by Hannah Prevett on the Swiss “39 percent on everything” tariff shock in early August to which I contributed (paywall).
Mathias Hoffmann is Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on the macroeconomic aspects of international financial integration and on the link between financial markets and the macro-economy more generally. His recent published articles include papers on the determinants of international capital flows and imbalances, the international transmission of business cycles, on international risk sharing, banking regulation, and housing markets. Prior to arriving in Zurich, he was Professor at the University of Dortmund in Germany and a Lecturer at Southampton University (UK). He holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence and obtained his undergraduate education in economics and mathematics at WHU School of Management, Brandeis University and the University of Bonn.
Mathias Hoffmann is affiliated with the University of Zurich’s research priority program in financial regulation (URPPP FinREG), a fellow of CESifo Munich and of the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) at the Australian National University, and has held visiting positions at the University of California at Berkeley, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Finland, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank for International Settlements, Norges Bank, Keio University and Stanford University.