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Stephen Bartholomeusz

Stephen Bartholomeusz

Stephen Bartholomeusz is one of Australia’s most respected business journalists. He was most recently co-founder and associate editor of the Business Spectator website and an associate editor and senior columnist at The Australian.

Has Donald Trump just helped China get ahead in the AI race?

Trump is the wildcard that could blow up AI

The ultimate fate of the technology that promises to transform the world looks to be in the hands of an erratic president.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz

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There are now a lot of bets, and potentially a lot of profits, tied to what Donald Trump does, or says next.

Unusual bets on Trump’s war have rung alarm bells

Highly profitable trades made ahead of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran have put a spotlight on a fast-growing threat to the financial system.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Markets are down amid concerns over the Iran war - but it could be a lot more drastic.

Markets are down on Iran war, but the slump could be a lot worse

Investors’ relatively calm response to the attack on Iran will be short-lived if the hostilities drag on.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Claude is so entrenched within the US Defence Department – Pete Hesgeth’s “Department of War” – that the administration has, despite the immediacy of Trump’s directive, given the department six months to phase it out and  replace it with Anthropic rivals’ models.

Trump declares war on one of his weapons

Even as Donald Trump directed government agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s Claude AI tools last week, they were being used to launch the assault on Iran.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
The Strait of Hormuz is the critical choke point in the global oil industry, with about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and roughly a third of its LNG passing through it each day.

Dire straits: The oil industry is facing its worst nightmare

The US-Israeli assault on Iran has brought into sharp focus a critical choke point for global shipping.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
US President Donald Trump has threatened higher tariffs on any country that “played games” with his new tariff regime.

Trump’s new tariffs will look nothing like the old ones

The tariffs that replace those deemed illegal by the US Supreme Court will require a much more complex and time-consuming process than Trump’s initial “beautiful” tariffs.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has described Bitcoin as "worthless", but will still allow clients to buy and sell the cryptocurrency.

‘People doing dumb things’: Wall Street boss Jamie Dimon warns of AI frenzy

The JPMorgan Chase CEO thinks the impact of artificial intelligence on software companies might be the trigger for a wave of loan defaults, and sees parallels to the GFC.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Vladimir Putin’s war has crippled Russia’s economy.

Deep freeze: Putin has put Russia’s future in doubt

Putin is steering Russia towards a permanent economic winter.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Trump has wielded the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as a multipurpose weapon, using it and the tariffs he imposed to, not just force countries into extremely one-sided trade deals, but as geopolitical leverage.

Mad king: Trump just lost his superpower

The US president had access to royal-like powers and he wielded them recklessly. The Supreme Court just took them away.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
The dramatic surge in US government debt in only the first year of Trump’s second presidency – about $US2 trillion, and rising, has been added – have raised concerns about America’s longer term fiscal stability.

Trump has opened the door for Europe to attack

The president’s erratic policies have created the best chance in the 75-year history of the “European Project” to erode the dominance of the US dollar.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz