Liberation Day is finally upon us. As of Tuesday, we were still pretty fuzzy about the whole thing, but here’s what we know and don’t know.

The White House intends to use tariffs, effective immediately upon announcement at a 4 p.m. ET Rose Garden event today, to raise revenue and rearrange the global trading order. What we don’t know: Just how high the tariffs will be, and on which countries. What we do know: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has identified a list of countries — dubbed the “Dirty 15” percent of nations — deemed most worthy of tariffs. Which brings us to more of what we don’t know: Just which countries, exactly, are included in this 15.

Thankfully, we have some clues.

Double Jeopardy

Besent said in a Fox News interview last month the list is composed of countries that are both major trading partners with the US and also maintain tariffs and other “non-tariff barriers” on US goods. In a later interview on the network, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the administration is looking to target a list of 10 to 15 countries that account for the majority of the US’s $1 trillion trading deficit. In short: The Dirty 15 appear to be countries that commit the double whammy of exporting more goods to America than they import from America, all while maintaining tariffs on US goods.

Meanwhile, the Office of the US Trade Representative recently issued a notice seeking public input in reviewing and identifying which countries are conducting “unfair trade practices” at the expense of US commerce, specifically singling out “G20 countries, as well as those economies that have the largest trade deficits in goods with the United States.” Which, all in all, means there’s a pretty clear picture of which countries the Trump administration has in its tariff crosshairs:

• According to Commerce Department data, the economies running the highest trade deficits with the US last year were: China, the European Union, Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Switzerland, Malaysia, Cambodia, and South Africa.
• Meanwhile, the Trade Representative’s Office also singled out Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom in its notice.

In other words: The list of countries that could fit into the Dirty 15 definition is long — which may explain why the President has signalled he could start with blanket tariffs, potentially as high as 20%, on all imports. It’s important to note that economists still agree that running a trade deficit with another country is not inherently a bad thing.

New World Order: Another thing we know for sure: The specter of tariffs is already upending the global trading order. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that trade chiefs for Japan, South Korea, and China have renewed discussions to strengthen their economic ties to combat the downstream effects of new US import taxes. While there is no deal yet, even talks of deepening relations shows how seriously both traditional American economic allies and adversaries are taking the tariff threats. We’ll have to wait til later today to see just what happens.

An acute talent shortage, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and rapid technological advancements are straining company infrastructure, staff, and clients alike. The auditing sector is not only accrual world but a cruel one.

This week brings some modest praise, however. New figures published by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board show the Big Four auditing firms reduced deficiencies in their audits of publicly traded companies in 2024, after the board chastised them for “unacceptable” results a year earlier.

Excel at More Than Excel

Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG are together responsible for auditing companies that account for roughly 80% of the market value of publicly traded businesses, according to the PCAOB.

They are also at the heart of an industry undergoing seismic human and technological change: Hundreds of thousands of people left the profession in the first half of the decade and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reported in 2023 that roughly three quarters of its members were at retirement age. On the upside, enrollment in undergraduate accounting programs rebounded 12% in the fall of 2024 after years of decline.

The pandemic didn’t help: Firms were called to rapidly adopt remote work and digital tools, which also meant auditors had limited access to client sites and records, making verification trickier. In the pressure-filled years of 2022 and 2023, the deficiency rate in the Big Four’s public company audits rose to 26%, meaning the oversight board didn’t find sufficient evidence in those cases to support auditors’ written assessments of the accuracy of financial statements, which are required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, however, marked a notable improvement:

• The Oversight Board inspected 255 audits performed by Big Four firms and found a 20% deficiency rate: All four firms showed improvement. Deloitte’s deficiency rate dropped to 14% from 21% year-over-year, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ rate fell to 16% from 18%, and KPMG’s declined to 20% from 26%.
• EY had the highest rate for the second year in a row at 28%, but it was a marked decrease from 37% in 2023 and 46% in 2022. To improve its practice, EY dumped dozens of clients last year.

PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams praised the “significant improvements” but cautioned that the “work is far from over.”

Regulator Uncertainty: Under Williams, the PCAOB — which is a nonprofit overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission — has ramped up enforcement actions to historic levels to try and improve industry performance, but there’s no guarantee that will continue. Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee to lead the SEC, declined to answer last week when asked if he thought the PCAOB should be abolished and folded into the SEC. The board was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, following the bankruptcy of energy company Enron — the largest in US history at the time — and the conviction of its auditor, Arthur Andersen, on a federal obstruction of justice charge.

And just like that: A new meme-stock star is born.

In its second day of trading on Tuesday, shares of Newsmax — a.k.a. the conservative cable news network — climbed 183%, just a day after popping 735% in its trading debut. That makes the company’s IPO one of the most ascendant ever. And, for Newsmax, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

We Meme Business

Of course, meme stocks by definition trade at levels well beyond their company’s estimated value, according to any traditional metric. And Newsmax fits the bill to a tee. After the remarkable rocket ship ride in the past two days, the company now has a market cap exceeding $30 billion on reported revenue of just $171 million last year.

Which means even by memestock standards, Newsmax is a shooting star:

• By market cap, Newsmax surpassed legacy media players Warner Bros. Discovery — which posted revenue of $39 billion last year and owns a global streaming service with nearly 120 million subscribers — as well as Fox Corp., which has enjoyed a Trump Bump to the top of TV news ratings charts. Fox News averages around 3 million primetime viewers, compared with Newsmax’s 309,000, according to Nielsen data.
• At its current market cap, the company is also trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 175, according to Bloomberg calculations, which is way higher than the ratios of 4 and 14 once seen by legendary meme stocks Gamestop and AMC, respectively.

News Flash: The stock’s meteoric jump has, obviously, been great for the company’s founder and CEO, Christopher Ruddy, who owns roughly a third of Newsmax shares. That means his net worth has soared past billionaires like Mark Cuban and Bill Ackman, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. It’s good timing, too: The news network remains in ongoing litigation with Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Newsmax for defamation over claims its voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages; the company previously scored a $787 million settlement with Fox in a lawsuit litigating similar claims. In other words: It’s a pretty good time to be flush with a few billion extra dollars.