Finance
This week in Trumponomics: Playing chicken with markets
In the traditional game of chicken, two drivers speed toward each until one loses his nerve and swerves off the road. In Donald Trump’s version of the game, everybody sustains some damage.
Trump has been testing the tolerance of financial markets since his first day in office by disassembling government agencies, canceling federal spending, and mounting a trade war with numerous economic partners. Investors have been trying to gauge how disruptive Trump will ultimately be and whether he’ll cause temporary or lasting damage.
Less than two months into his term, Trump has now driven the stock market into a ditch. Markets didn’t flinch much when Trump imposed his first set of tariffs on Chinese imports in February. The 10% levy was less than Trump had threatened, and investors saw it coming.
The stakes grew considerably the week of March 3, when Trump announced another 10% tariff on Chinese imports and a much stiffer 25% tax on imports from Canada and Mexico. America’s northern and southern neighbors are its largest trading partners, and the 25% tax would sharply raise the cost of nearly $1 trillion worth of goods, including cars and car parts, food, construction materials, and energy.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
The stock market buckled. Trump promptly began backtracking on the North American tariffs, offering temporary exemptions for key categories of products. Yet Trump continues to say more tariffs are coming on European imports and many other products from nations he considers to be unfair trade partners.
At close: March 7 at 4:43:27 PM EST
Markets are now pricing in more damage from tariffs than they were a few weeks ago, along with rising odds of a recession. The S&P 500 lost 3.5% the week of March 3, with Trump’s retreat on tariffs doing little to calm markets. US stocks are underperforming those in Europe and many other markets.
Investor views of Trump’s economic plans are rapidly souring. “Trump tariff push descends into farce,” Capital Economics declared in a March 7 analysis. “For those keeping score, Trump has now imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico then almost immediately performed a full U-turn twice in a month.” The research firm points out that since Trump’s reprieve is only supposed to last until April 2, more lurches are probably coming.
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Trump’s latest tariff action led Goldman Sachs to reduce its estimate for economic growth this year from 2.2% to 1.7%. The firm’s inflation forecast rose from 2.1% to 3%. Morgan Stanley made similar downgrades. Trump’s approval rating is also slipping, and that’s in polls taken before the early March sell-off. Americans worried about the price of eggs and other items, meanwhile, heard Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggest on March 2 that they should start raising chickens in their backyards.
Finance
Anne Arundel County Launches New Finance and Procurement Platform
Anne Arundel County is preparing to launch a new finance and e-procurement system to modernize county operations and improve how businesses interact with local government.
The new platform, called Harbor, is scheduled to go live in July and will replace the County’s legacy procurement system with a centralized cloud-based platform built on Oracle Fusion Cloud.
County officials say the new system is designed to streamline procurement and financial processes while making it easier for both existing and prospective vendors to do business with the County.
From the press release:
“Harbor is a much-needed upgrade that will streamline services for our county agencies and those who do business with the county,” said Anne Arundel County Chief Administrative Officer Christine Anderson.
The platform will serve as a single portal for supplier registration, bid opportunities, invoicing, payment tracking, and contract management, consolidating what had previously been spread across multiple systems. County leaders say the transition is part of a broader effort to modernize operations, improve efficiency, and lower barriers for businesses seeking to compete for county contracts.
For counties, procurement modernization remains an important operational priority as local governments look to improve transparency, strengthen vendor engagement, and simplify access for businesses of all sizes. Anne Arundel County has encouraged interested suppliers to review training materials and registration information ahead of the July launch.
Finance
Quadient Recognized as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix for Accounts Receivable Applications
Quadient demonstrates continued innovation in AI-driven invoice-to-cash automation and unified finance operations
Paris
Quadient (Euronext Paris: QDT), a global automation platform powering secure and sustainable business connections, announced today it has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix™ for Accounts Receivable Applications by technology analyst and advisory firm QKS Group. Quadient strengthened its position in the report year-over-year, with a notable improvement in Technology Excellence, reflecting continued innovation in its AI-driven invoice-to-cash solution.
According to QKS Group, Quadient’s leadership position highlights its evolution into a comprehensive, AI-powered platform that delivers strong predictive accuracy and straight-through processing. The analyst firm also emphasized the capability of Quadient’s solutions to unify accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP), offering finance leaders greater visibility and insights into their business finances to make faster, better decisions on working capital management.
Earlier this month, Quadient announced the release of its new cash dashboard capability for AR and AP that allows finance teams to bring together traditionally siloed data in a single view. An AI assistant summarizes key metrics and provides analysis that helps finance leaders accelerate cash on hand, improve forecasting, reduce risk and uncover opportunities to optimize working capital.
“Quadient has established a strong position in the 2026 Accounts Receivable Automation market through its focus on intelligent automation, cash flow optimization and integrated financial operations,” said Sanjeevi C R, associate vice president, Enterprise Research at QKS Group. “The platform’s evolution from predictive analytics to AI-driven autonomous collections execution represents a meaningful step forward in reducing manual effort across the invoice-to-cash cycle. What differentiates Quadient is its ability to combine collections management, cash application, and payment processing with a unified accounts receivable and accounts payable ecosystem, providing finance leaders with a more holistic view of working capital performance. By enabling greater automation, enhanced cash flow visibility, and more efficient receivables operations, Quadient continues to deliver measurable value for organizations seeking to modernize their financial processes and improve liquidity management.”
QKS Group highlighted the following key strengths for Quadient AR:
Finance
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