Europe Weighs Trade 'Bazooka' Against U.S.
Politics

Europe Weighs Trade 'Bazooka' Against U.S.

CNBC4h ago
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Key Facts

  • European countries are reportedly considering retaliatory tariffs and wider economic counter-measures against the United States.
  • The potential actions are being described as a trade 'bazooka' in response to the deepening Greenland crisis.
  • The measures under consideration extend beyond simple tariffs to include broader economic restrictions affecting multiple sectors.
  • The situation represents a fundamental test of transatlantic relations and European willingness to pursue aggressive economic measures.
  • The coordinated European response suggests a unified front that could prove difficult for U.S. negotiators to counter individually.

Quick Summary

European countries are reportedly considering a significant escalation in their response to the ongoing Greenland crisis, with retaliatory tariffs and wider economic counter-measures against the United States now on the table. The potential actions are being described as a trade 'bazooka,' signaling a dramatic shift in transatlantic relations.

The development comes as the geopolitical standoff over Greenland intensifies, threatening to reshape economic and diplomatic ties between Europe and the U.S. This move represents one of the most serious potential responses in recent memory, with implications for global trade and international diplomacy.

The Trade 'Bazooka' Strategy

The term trade 'bazooka' has emerged as a powerful metaphor for the scale of potential economic measures being considered. European nations are reportedly preparing a comprehensive package of retaliatory actions that could fundamentally alter the economic landscape between the continent and the United States.

The measures under consideration extend beyond simple tariffs, encompassing a broader spectrum of economic counter-measures designed to maximize pressure. This strategic approach suggests a coordinated European response aimed at addressing what officials view as unacceptable U.S. actions in the Greenland region.

Key elements of this potential strategy include:

  • Targeted tariffs on specific U.S. exports
  • Broader economic restrictions affecting multiple sectors
  • Coordinated action across multiple European nations
  • Measures designed to maintain strategic leverage

The Greenland Crisis Context

The Greenland crisis has been developing as a major point of contention between European nations and the United States. While specific details of the crisis remain fluid, the situation has reached a critical juncture where traditional diplomatic channels appear insufficient to resolve the underlying tensions.

European governments view the crisis as a matter of strategic importance, with implications extending beyond the immediate territorial concerns. The potential economic measures reflect a determination to protect European interests while sending a clear message about the consequences of perceived U.S. overreach in the region.

The situation represents a fundamental test of transatlantic relations and the willingness of European nations to pursue aggressive economic measures in defense of their strategic interests.

Economic Implications

The potential implementation of retaliatory tariffs would carry significant consequences for both European and American economies. Industries across multiple sectors could face disruption, from agriculture to manufacturing, as trade flows potentially redirect in response to new barriers.

The broader economic counter-measures under consideration suggest a comprehensive approach that could affect financial services, technology transfers, and investment flows. Such measures would represent a departure from the relatively stable economic relationship that has characterized transatlantic ties in recent decades.

Potential affected areas include:

  • Manufacturing and industrial goods
  • Agricultural products and food exports
  • Technology and digital services
  • Financial and investment sectors

Diplomatic Fallout

The move toward economic counter-measures signals a potential breakdown in traditional diplomatic channels between Europe and the United States. Such actions could strain alliances and complicate cooperation on other critical global issues, from security to climate change.

The coordinated European response suggests a unified front that could prove difficult for U.S. negotiators to counter individually. This collective approach amplifies the potential impact while demonstrating European resolve in addressing the Greenland crisis.

The situation creates a complex diplomatic challenge where economic tools become instruments of foreign policy, potentially setting precedents for how similar disputes might be handled in the future.

Looking Ahead

The reported consideration of a trade 'bazooka' represents a critical juncture in transatlantic relations. The coming weeks will likely determine whether these potential measures materialize or if diplomatic channels can be reopened to address the underlying concerns.

Observers will be watching closely for any official announcements from European capitals regarding the specific nature and timing of potential counter-measures. The response from Washington will be equally crucial in determining whether the situation escalates further or finds a diplomatic resolution.

The Greenland crisis has clearly evolved from a regional concern into a major geopolitical challenge with the potential to reshape economic relationships across the Atlantic. How both sides navigate this dispute will have lasting implications for international trade and diplomatic cooperation.

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Advice from 6 quant executives on succeeding in systematic trading — and in life
Economics

Advice from 6 quant executives on succeeding in systematic trading — and in life

Geoffrey Lauprete is the head of Cubist Systematic Strategies. Jeff Yass founded proprietary trading firm Susquehanna International Group. Cubist; Susquehanna Competition for top quant talent has never been stiffer, especially as AI labs enter the fray. Technical brilliance matters, but other skills required to succeed are often overlooked. Execs from firms like Cubist, Tower, and Schonfeld share keys to success in quant trading. Competition for top quant talent has never been stiffer. With top hedge funds and high-frequency trading firms in expansion mode — and increasingly encroaching on the same turf — the mathematicians, physicists, data scientists, and engineers who power them are in high demand. The emergence of AI labs, which can outbid even the top-tier finance firms with war chests of tens of billions in capital, has only ratcheted up the competition. For those eyeing a career in systematic trading — and the skills to get hired — the financial incentives have never been better. Quant interns at Jane Street can now earn tens of thousands over the summer, equivalent to a $300,000 base salary. New grads at top-tier firms can earn compensation packages exceeding $500,000. The truly successful quant researchers and portfolio managers can reap tens of millions annually as their careers progress. Technical brilliance is no assurance of success in this arena. Lasting in such a competitive field, let alone making it to the top, requires skills that are often overlooked or underdiscussed. Business Insider compiled advice and insights from quant execs from firms including Cubist, Schonfeld, Tower Research, and D.E. Shaw about what it takes to succeed in the industry — and in life. Geoffrey Lauprete, head of Cubist Systematic Strategies Geoffrey Lauprete took over as head of Cubist last fall. Cubist Lauprete took over as head of Cubist Systematic Strategies, the quant arm of Point72, in September. He previously spent nearly two decades at systematic giant WorldQuant, including a long stretch as CIO. When interviewing quants, he's looking to suss out what kind of value a candidate added in their previous role — but he's also paying attention to how well they communicate this and whether their answers indicate authentic passion for the job. "Substance matters, but what I'm really impressed by are candidates who have a structured thought process, can clearly articulate why they played an important role in previous mandates, and can bring passion to their story," Lauprete told Business Insider. Quant investing combines several specialties — quantitative analysis, programming and deploying code, and market knowledge — and if "someone can articulate why putting these three things together is exciting, it's usually a reflection of their passion," Lauprete said. Strict, lengthy noncompetes are ubiquitous in systematic trading, with firms sometimes having to wait two years before a hire can join. Lauprete wants to "understand how they are planning to structure their time off and what skills they'll be working on during that time," he said. John Cogman, CIO of Tower Research In the hypercompetitive quant job market, soft skills can set you apart and maximize your earning potential. Tower Research is one of the giants of quant proprietary trading, with over 1,100 employees across a dozen global offices. Identifying and hiring top quants is "one of the most important aspects of our business," CIO John Cogman wrote in a paper titled "The Myth of the Quant God." Cogman said the challenge isn't just in finding technically gifted people, but those who also have the right demeanor and social IQ — a combo that "is infinitely harder and far more valuable." "Quants who reach their full potential tend to share subtler traits," Cogman said. Quantitative brilliance can be undercut by an inability to communicate ideas to other departments, like risk or engineering, by alienating coworkers, or by crumbling under market pressure, Cogman notes. "No one, not even the quant gods in our midst, is great at everything," Cogman said. Those who plateau tend to lack self-awareness. The full package for a quant, in Cogman's view, includes a mix of technical skills — modeling, programming, data analysis, and market know-how — combined with "translational skills" (communication, understanding the big-picture business, and adaptability) and "behavioral skills" like self-awareness, resilience, and consistency. The reality is that quantitative trading is a highly collaborative endeavor, and "lone-wolf geniuses" — or overbearing jerks — aren't good for business. "Our most successful traders aren't necessarily the loudest, the flashiest, or the most strong-willed. They're the ones willing to learn, collaborate, and be self-critical," Cogman wrote. "You can't optimize empathy or quantify resilience, but they move the needle more than any parameter ever could." Mike Tiano, deputy head of systematic strategies at Schonfeld While technical chops, from linear algebra to statistics to coding, are a given, a key trait Tiano — who was promoted to deputy head of systematic strategies in the fall — looks for is curiosity. "An important trait is just obsessive curiosity about problems, especially outside of finance. Because there's a lot of cross-fertilization that goes on," Tiano told Business Insider. Whether it's physics, fluid mechanics, or biological evolution, many disciplines offer problem-solving frameworks that can be applied to systematic trading, including generating alpha signals, portfolio construction, trade execution, and transaction costs. "It gives you the ability to take inspiration from other areas of science and incorporate it into a logical problem," Tiano said. Other attributes that help quants succeed include the ability to fixate on a problem for an extended period of time and dissect it into manageable pieces. "You want to find someone who will obsess over a problem," Tiano said. "They'll go into a research project, and it's going to dominate what they do for a long time." They also need to "have the ability to take a complex problem and break it into smaller pieces in a sensible way." Something that goes hand in hand with that is patience. "They have to be patient. That's hard, because in our industry money is always moving — PNL can change a lot from day to day," Tiano said. "People can get flustered, and it can break their obsessive work on the problem." For new grads, one of the most important pieces of advice is not to underrate the value of networking in getting your first job and building a career, Tiano said, noting every job he's held — from engineering, to academia, to finance — was due in part to networking. "Go to conferences, go to events, join professional societies. Reach out to alumni in the industry," Tiano said. Jeff Yass, founder of Susquehanna International Group Jeff Yass is the founder of Susquehanna International Group. Susquehanna International GRoup Yass, the betting-enthusiast turned options-trading titan, thinks our society overrates the value of calculus and underrates the necessity of understanding probabilities, which has a greater impact on everyday life. "If you really want to be a decision maker under uncertainty, which is what humanity is, you have to learn probability and statistics," Yass said on a recent podcast appearance. It's a blind spot in American education, in his view, and the problem is compounded by the fact that people tend not to properly weigh life's most important decisions — like who you marry. "One of the things that we do in reverse: the bigger the decision, the less time we think about it," Yass said. He continued: "You know, if you're buying or selling a stock — and it's basically irrelevant what you're doing because the markets are fair — you'll spend a lot of time on it. If you're deciding who to marry or who to have a relationship or whatever, you basically just plop into it without much thought. "And one has a gigantic impact on your life and one has a very small impact on your life. Yet we spend much more time worrying about the minor things and not enough time worrying about the big things." In a notable year of financiers offering dating advice, Yass' romantic wisdom is pragmatic, though his solution may be more difficult to implement in practice. "Don't go out with somebody that your friends think is a nutcase," Yass said. He recommends asking your friends — and have them respond honestly and anonymously if possible — a single question: Am I making a gigantic mistake? "So many lives are ruined because you get involved with the wrong person, and no one wants to speak up," Yass added. Gappy Paleologo, global head of quantitative research at Balyasny Asset Management Paleologo is known for offering memes, advice, and unvarnished views on LinkedIn and X. In an extended X thread this past summer, Paleologo offered advice to all the disappointed interns — people at top firms accustomed to succeeding at whatever they put their mind to — who fail to receive a full-time offer. Time for a sober, but hopefully hopeful, possibly short, 🧵. Every year, at this time of the year, I am contacted by several interns across a swat of HF/prop trading firms who were just told, sometimes informally, that they will not receive return offers. 1/ — Gappy (Giuseppe Paleologo) (@__paleologo) August 5, 2025 His first piece of advice is not to bottle it up and wallow in failure in isolation. "Because everyone has experienced at some point what you are experiencing now, and just the memory of rejection burns," he wrote. Then, if you're still set on a career in finance, start getting accustomed to the feeling of failure. "Finance is built out of being right only slightly more than being wrong. You don't learn how to succeed. You just learn how to suffer successfully. Working in finance is like being Jackie Chan's nose in a 1980s Hong Kong martial arts movie. "The bad news is that eventually you look like a tuber. The good news is that ugly noses can be famous too. The big question is, of course, how many punches can a nose bear before stopping functioning altogether. The non-scientific answer to this question is: surprisingly many." His more practical advice for ambitious quants tasting professional rejection for the first time: Apply to a number of firms — not just the best of the best Learn from failed interviews and rejection Don't undervalue external recruiters (but do your diligence) Customize your application to the job Consider a master's or postdoc in a relevant field "The only reason to quit is if you realize that you were cosplaying for someone else. But if you find out you do like finance, most likely things will work out for you." Jeremy Reff, head of recruiting at D.E. Shaw Jeremy Reff, 40, D.E. Shaw's head of recruitment, started out in the firm's investor relations team in 2006. D.E. Shaw D.E. Shaw, one of the most successful quant hedge funds in history, has been known to boast of the International Math Olympiad medal winners on staff, but it also makes a practice of hiring people from non-traditional backgrounds. Reff explained that hiring academics, doctors, veterans or others from fields outside of quant finance can cost more in upfront training but typically yields a strong return on investment. "There are benefits to having a beginner's mindset," he told Business Insider in 2024. D.E. Shaw's interview process aims to gauge whether candidates have creativity, "learning agility," and other attributes that signal potential success at the hedge fund. "There are thousands of indicators for success that we use," he said. "No one is hired solely based on their résumé." Read the original article on Business Insider

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The world's biggest fast-food chain just landed in NYC. We tried Mixue — and the hype is real.
Lifestyle

The world's biggest fast-food chain just landed in NYC. We tried Mixue — and the hype is real.

I visited the Mixue location in Midtown Manhattan's Herald Square. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider Mixue has opened its first American locations: two in New York, and one in Los Angeles. I visited the Herald Square ice cream and boba shop to see if it was worth the hype. The options were wildly affordable, giving McDonald's menu a run for its money. New York City has a new ice cream shop. It just happens to be the biggest fast-food chain in the world. The Chinese chain Mixue has more than 46,000 stores globally. That now includes two New York locations and one in Los Angeles — its first in the United States. Mixue offers ice cream, coffee, and boba at ultra-affordable prices. It's one of a variety of Chinese chains, including Luckin Coffee and Chagee, looking to undercut traffic to American companies with their low costs. I visited the Herald Square location of Mixue to see if it lived up to the hype. (Spoiler alert: McDonald's should be worried.) It's official — Mixue, a titan of the Chinese fast food market, has landed on American soil. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider Mixue's three US locations opened in December. Another New York location is currently being built. The Herald Square location stood out with its bright red exterior. Several passerbys stopped to take photos. At least 20 people lined up outside of the Herald Square location at 1:50 PM on a Friday. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider Even though it was two weeks out from Mixue's grand opening, the chain still had the red carpet rolled out — and the line was full. I counted over 20 people queueing up. While waiting in line, Mixue blasted its song on a loop. It was sweet at first; after 10 minutes in line, it became head-pounding. The line continued inside, where they were still celebrating the grand opening. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider The line snaked inside, where it fed out to a set of tablets and a human cashier. On the other side, a pack of customers waited for their items. Across the ceiling hung a long banner, congratulating the store opening. Costs were low — but many items were sold out. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider I made it to one of the tablets, scrolling the menu of teas, coffees, and sundaes. Mixue has a fairly limited menu, and many of its items were unavailable. I spotted 10 sold out items. Of the fruit tea offerings, only three of nine could be purchased. But, among the items that were available, I was struck at how low the prices were. Placing my order was easy, and it immediately gave me a coupon. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider I ordered a cone of soft serve and an oolong tea with coconut jelly. The tablet prompted me to sign up for its rewards program, and I immediately got 15% off my order. With the discount, my total was a mere $3.63. My ice cream came first. It tasted… like ice cream. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider A Mixue employee quickly served up my cone of ice cream, while the tea took a bit longer. The soft serve tasted exactly as you'd expect. It was sweet, creamy, and I finished it within a few minutes. Nothing miraculous, but solid for the price. My cone had three solid swirls stacked on top of each other. While waiting for my tea, I noticed some customers — especially those who ordered matcha-flavored cones — had shorter stacks. The oolong tea was delicious and affordable. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider The oolong tea came out a few minutes later. I popped the lid with the straw, gave it a big sip, and savored the coconut jellies inside. I had customized it just right: 70% sugar, less ice — delicious. There's a Gong Cha two blocks from the Mixue location. A similar tea at this location would cost $7.10 on Grubhub. That's almost three-times the price. The soft serve at McDonald's was over $2 more expensive. Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider Could Mixue undercut the American market with its low prices? I walked two blocks over to a McDonald's, which also offers a cheap cone of vanilla ice cream. At $3.29, the McDonald's cone was over $2 more expensive than Mixue. Mixue debuted on the market with a splashy IPO in March. Mixue had a splashy IPO debut in Hong Kong Liu Junfeng/VCG via Getty Images The ice cream and bubble tea chain went public in March, and it had a blockbuster first day of trading. The company's shares jumped 30% from their IPO price after the market opened. On its first day of trading, it offered close to 17.1 million shares, which amounted to 3.45 billion Hong Kong dollars, or about $444 million. At market close on Friday, Mixue's stock was up over 60% from its IPO price, trading at HK$419 per share. The chain is now the biggest fast food chain in the world by store count, beating its Western competitors. The sign of Mixue Bingcheng is seen at its shop in Shanghai, China. Aly Song/Reuters Mixue's retail footprint, with more than 46,000 stores globally, has far outpaced other global F&B giants like Starbucks and McDonald's, which have about 40,000 and 43,000 stores worldwide, respectively. Although its presence is largely concentrated in China, it also has a significant footprint in Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. It has some outlets in Australia and New Zealand as well. However, the Tribeca store is its first foray into North America. The Singapore store experience: cheap and to-go. Mixue is known for its soft-serve ice creams and fruity milk teas, all priced under $3. Aditi Bharade Mixue outlets in Singapore are designed for convenience, with all of them being to-go counters. When Business Insider visited the Mixue Singapore store in March, there was a queue of about five people before the counter. The store's bright sign and its "Snow King" mascot — a snowman wearing a crown — were enough to catch the attention of passersby. The price tags were likewise conservative. The most expensive item in the store was a cheese strawberry drink for 4 Singapore dollars, or about $3.12. The cheapest was the SG$1.50 Signature King Cone soft serve ice cream. The soft serve tasted just as good as McDonald's, with a much bigger, crispier cone. The strawberry cheese drink, a rather suspicious combination, turned out to be very refreshing. Most of the store's drinks were priced from SG$2.50 to SG$3.50. Other Chinese companies are making inroads into the US. Women leave a Luckin Coffee store in Beijing. Thomas Peter/Retuers Mixue's US debut is the latest example of Chinese companies trying to get a slice of the US food and beverage consumer pie. Its store opening comes shortly after its competitor, Luckin Coffee, opened its first two stores in NYC in June. According to its Instagram, the Luckin Coffee chain has five outlets in the city now. Luckin Coffee, which is known for its budget coffee and aggressive promotions, is Starbucks' biggest competitor in China. Bubble tea brand Chagee, which also went public this year in April, opened its first US store in Los Angeles in May. Read the original article on Business Insider

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