The rise of tariffs as a trade weapon has put the WTO in a very difficult position as “chief judge in an intense fight among its most powerful members” – NYTimes

China’s found itself in a tariff-related bind, too – NYTimes

Which, in turn, means a threat that “could define a generation of American life” – Bloomberg

The latest from the Elon/Tesla soap opera came with yesterday’s announcement from Tesla’s board that it had created a special committee to review Musk’s much-buzzed-about proposal to take the company private – NYTimes

Oh, and Fidelity and T. Rowe Price announced that they’ve cut their stakes by more than 20%–a move that they made before Elon’s recent Twitter drama – Bloomberg

The Royal Bank of Scotland has finalized the terms of its $4.9 billion settlement with the DOJ that resolves claims that the bank “deceived investors about poor-quality loans” behind its RMBS – Law360

Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments has offered to buy Sears’ Kenmore brand for $400 million in cash—cash that, as Lampert knows from his role as Sears CEO, the retailer desperately needs – WSJ

Turkey’s economic crisis settled a hair on Tuesday, but a proposed US electronics ban from President Erdogan and a slide in the Indian rupee have done little to tamp down the “contagion” buzz – WSJ

Uber has chosen former National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen as its new chief security officer. Olsen replaces Joe Sullivan, whom CEO Dara Khosrowshahi fired over his handling of Uber’s data breach and subsequent payoff of hackers who obtained 57 million personal records from Uber users – NYTimes and Law360

Kroger’s partnering with Alibaba to sell groceries online in China—the grocer’s “first foray into foreign sales amid a broader push into online retail” – WSJ and MarketWatch

The SEC revealed this week that two investment firms and an underwriter have resolved charges of “conspiring to make quick profits by trading newly issued municipal bonds, a practice known as flipping” – Bloomberg

We learned the other day that Sergio Marchionne’s “eccentric” style was the future of leadership. Well, Ford’s Jim Hackett’s testing that theory already, and so far, it’s not going all that well – WSJ

There’s a new epidemic sweeping the US, and—believe it or not—it’s all about Americans’ inability to tell the difference among “even basic plants.” Folks, we’re talking “plant blindness” here – WSJ