President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught this week left a lot of losers – from small, poor countries like Laos and Algeria to wealthy U.S. trading partners like Canada and Switzerland.

They’re now facing hefty taxes – tariffs – on the products they export to the United States.

The closest thing to winners may be the countries that caved to Trump’s demands — and avoided even more pain. But it’s unclear whether anyone will be able to claim victory in the long run — even the United States, the intended beneficiary of Trump’s protectionist policies.

Trump’s trade war has pushed the average U.S. tariff from 2.5% at the start of 2025 to 18.3% now, the highest since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. One expert at the New York Law School said that “in many respects, everybody’s a loser here.’’

Profits drop at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as it writes down its Kraft Heinz investment

Warren Buffett’s company reported less than half as much profit in the second quarter as it took a $3.76 billion writedown on the value of its stake in Kraft Heinz as that iconic food producer considers largely undoing the merger that Berkshire Hathaway helped bankroll.

Berkshire said it earned $12.37 billion in the quarter because it recorded a smaller gain on its investments compared to last year when it unloaded a chunk of its Apple stake. Berkshire still owns more than 27% of Kraft Heinz. Buffett has said previously that he believes in the company but the problem is that he overpaid for it originally.