Axios

Fashion footwear company NineWest on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Why it matters: This is the latest in a growing list of private equity-backed consumer brands to go bankrupt, in large part due to large debt loads related to their originals acquisitions.

In an interview with CNBC Friday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the Trump administration has been "very well-organized" in its handling of tariffs on Chinese goods, and that their "objective" is to avoid a trade war, but warned that "there is the potential of a trade war."

Mnuchin is breaking with White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow, who has tried to instill a sense of calm with the president, who has denied trade war fears on Twitter, and through the roller coaster markets this week by insisting the U.S. is not in a trade war with China.

President Trump said Friday that the World Trade Organization "is unfair" to the U.S., unlike China, who he claims gets "tremendous perks and advantages" for their status as a developing nation. Note: China has responded to the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods by filing a complaint through the WTO.

The facts: There are no definitions of "developed" or "developing" countries within the WTO. Countries in the WTO are designated on the basis of self-selection, per the WTO website. The WTO cannot determine what China designates itself as.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow came out on television again Friday to try to calm fears on the escalating tariff situation with China, maintaining for the second time this week that the U.S. is not in a trade war, negotiations are still in the works, and that China is to blame — not President Trump.

"We are considering adding tariff pressures. Considering. ... I don't want to disrupt the economy. The president doesn't want to disrupt the economy ... This a moderate, temperate approach we are taking ... this is not a trade war."

China's Ministry of Commerce warned Friday that it will immediately retaliate if the U.S. imposes the additional $100 billion in tariffs that President Trump threatened on Thursday, and said the country is not ruling out any options.

Why it matters: The Trump administration insists they aren't engaging in a trade war with China, but the country's latest comments have increasingly made it appear to be just that.

"Now that stocks, bonds and other assets are moving in strange ways, many investors view continued volatility as one of the year’s most dependable bets," the Wall Street Journal reports on A1:

• "The Cboe index, known as the VIX, is up 72% since the start of the year."
• Hedge funds and asset managers are "buying futures contracts pegged to the VIX, a profitable bet if volatility continues to rise."
• Goldman Sachs wrote in an April 2 report: "Hedge what you fear."

[24]7.ai, an automated customer service provider used by Delta and Sears, announced Thursday that it had been breached last year.

Why it matters: Though details are currently scant, payment information for under 100,000 Sears customers and, via the New York Post, a "small subset" of Delta travelers' information may have been taken.

Soybeans, a crop almost exclusively produced by farmers in the GOP's rural base who voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in the 2016 election, are a key inclusion on China's list of 106 U.S. products that will be subject to retaliatory tariffs.

The bottom line: In 2016, soybeans accounted for 12% of U.S. exports to China, per MIT's data. And American farmers ramped up production of soybeans in part because the Chinese were buying in such massive quantities. Now, that source of revenue is in jeopardy.

Wages in the United States are going up, but their growth is shrinking, says Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain.

By the numbers: Wages should be rising an average of 3%–4% given the tightness of the job market, Chamberlain says.

Today marks six months since the N.Y. Times posted its Harvey Weinstein bombshell ... Since then, #MeToo has left a lasting impact, AP's David Crary reports. The movement "has toppled scores of men from prominent positions and fueled a national conversation about workplace sexual harassment."

Why it matters: "There is ... ample evidence that the movement has some staying power ... as lawmakers across the nation enact an array of anti-harassment legislation, corporate America roots out bad behavior in the workplace and more women feel emboldened to speak out ... And the movement has the potential to guide the conversation surrounding the midterm elections, as evidenced by the record number of women getting into politics in 2018."

NBCUniversal announced Thursday a new advertising metric called CFlight, which will measure all advertising impressions across every NBCU viewing platform — whether those ads were consumed live, on-demand, on linear TV or digital platforms. The network hopes this new way of measuring viewership will be eventually adopted by the entire industry as a new currency for buying and selling ads.

Why it matters: The industry group that traditionally creates and enforces uniform measurement standards for all media companies, The Media Rating Council (MRC), has proposed a similar standard — and competitors have tested similar ideas. However, that's taken some time to implement, so the industry has taken things into its own hands to speed up the process.

"The impact of retaliation by China could drown out the GOP message that tax cuts are delivering prosperity, which the party is counting on to save their majorities in the House and Senate," per Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur.

The bottom line: China's threats of retaliation are scaring farmers in the GOP's rural base and across Trump country, creating a potential drag for Republicans in November's midterms.

To White House insiders, this is the most dangerous phase of Donald Trump's presidency so far, from the brewing trade war with China that he denies is a trade war, to the perilously spontaneous summit with North Korea.

The big picture: Checks are being ignored or have been eliminated, and critics purged as the president is filling time by watching Fox, and by eating dinner with people who feed his ego and conspiracy theories, and who drink in his rants. Both sides are getting more polarized and dug in — making the daily reality more absurd, and the potential consequences less urgent and able to grab people’s serious attention.