The exceptionally low unemployment rate is good news for American workers. But it contributes to a growing problem: companies can’t find enough employees. This puts downward pressure on corporate and U.S. economic growth.

In President Trump’s reckoning, international trade is a zero-sum game with distinct winners and losers. Exports are Team America’s points. Imports are the foreign team’s points. The trade account is the scoreboard, and the deficit on that scoreboard proves that the home team is losing at trade. Accordingly, the president considers blocking imports and promoting exports to be integral to effective trade policymaking.

2018 likely will be remembered for achieving solid economic growth, a highly volatile stock market, and an emerging trade war with China. In 2019 we can expect slower growth, continued volatility, and China to resist significant market-based reforms. These and other factors, combined with an environment of political uncertainty, could create greater risks.

Today, two seemingly opposite trends are gaining steam. The latest version of globalization is accelerating. Yet, at the same time, the United States and other countries are becoming more protectionist by erecting trade barriers at an alarming rate. What is the impact on the American economy and jobs?

Chérif Chekatt murdered five people and wounded 11 in a recent terror attack in France before being killed by police. Shortly before the attack, President Trump argued with the incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer over funding the border wall. Trump linked his earlier spat with the Democrats and the attack in France when he tweeted: “Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more.”

Aboard Air Force One on his way back from the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, President Trump renewed his threat to withdraw the United States from the almost 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. It’s a threat the president would be wise to reconsider.

The U.S. economy is estimated to grow by 3.1 percent this year, according to the Federal Reserve’s median rate, followed by 2.5 percent next year and 2 percent in 2020. The Wall Street Journal’s Economic Forecasting Survey of more than 60 economists indicates very similar projections.

With six months and counting before the UK-EU divorce becomes official, Britons understandably are frustrated by the absence of post-Brexit clarity. Genuine concern, lingering misgivings about the referendum, and a series of government missteps have invited justified criticism, but also heaps of hyperbole and fear-mongering from politicians and opinion leaders across the ideological spectrum.

President Donald Trump frequently proclaims his desire to “drain the swamp.” In U.S.-China trade relations, however, he is steadily leading the United States into a quagmire from which it may be difficult to escape. Skepticism and hostility towards China among U.S. politicians and commentators existed long before Trump, but the intensification of the rhetoric, and aggressive actions taken in recent months, will be difficult to undo or pull back from, at least for this administration.

It seems so long ago now, but towards the end of the Obama administration, government officials from the United States and China were working diligently to try to conclude a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). There was some uncertainty about whether the two governments would reach an agreement, as well as whether the U.S. Congress would ratify the treaty, but nevertheless, these two leading economic powers were working together towards a joint vision in an important area of global economic governance.