New Delhi, April 9 -- In early April 2025, global financial markets were jolted by a sharp and unexpected escalation in trade policy. US President Donald Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs targeting nearly every major trading partner, a move that went beyond the tit-for-tat approach of previous years.

These new tariffs were pegged not to policy negotiations but to trade deficits, making them largely non-negotiable and structurally permanent. The result was swift and brutal: U.S. equity markets shed $5.3 trillion in value within just two days (April 3-4), sending shockwaves across sectors and geographies.

Watching from a flight to Latin America, NYU professor and valuation expert Aswath Damodaran saw not just panic, but the anat...