Art Appraisal Blog

The headline numbers on the tariff shock tell you it happened. They don’t show what it actually looks like inside a company that has to live with it. Two countries make that clear: Germany and Italy, both with as much riding on the US relationship as almost anyone in Europe. Germany’s auto industry takes the direct hit The US set a 15% tariff on European cars from August 2025, on...

For twenty years, big companies could count on stable rules for selling into their biggest markets. A German carmaker sold into the US the same way, year after year. That changed fast. In 2025, tariffs shook up global trade harder than anything in decades. The result: a record $1.24 trillion US trade deficit for the year, and the numbers are still moving. Here’s what actually happened, and where things are...

When European or American companies start thinking seriously about doing business in Africa, the conversation often stalls before it starts. The continent is made up of 54 countries with different languages, currencies, and regulatory environments. Trying to have a single “Africa strategy” is a bit like trying to have a single “Europe strategy” that covers Portugal and Poland with the same plan. The more useful question isn’t “how do we...