S5E24 | Tariffs' History: U.S. Politics & Foreign Policy

What are tariffs really used for? For economic protection? For political gain? For enforcing foreign policy?

In this interview, I discuss the following with my guest scholar:

►Why James Madison foresaw tariffs as an inevitable source of conflict?

►In U.S. history, did Americans ever complain that tariffs are really a tax on the people?

►What was the first instance in which tariffs were used as a foreign policy tool?

►What is the Tariff of Abominations?

►How did tariffs backfire on Southern politicians?

►How are tariffs and secession movements related?

►Were tariffs part of Civil War's history?

►What powers did Congress grants to FDR over tariffs?

►What part of U.S. history does Pres. Trump point to as justification for his tariff policy?

►What was Pres. Reagan's tariff policy?

►How is tariff policy with the USSR different than our tariff policy toward China?

🚩About My 172nd Guest Scholar:

⁠Dr. Douglas Irwin is a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and also the Co-director of the Political Economy Project at Dartmouth. He is a Research Associate at the NBER - the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics , and served as the President of the Economic History Association (2023-24).

Dr. Irwin worked on trade policy issues while on the staff of Pres. Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and later worked in the International Finance Division at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.

He is the author, co-author and or editor of many books, including the following - that we discuss in this interview:

1st. "Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy" - it's a book that The Economist and Foreign Affairs selected as one of their Best Books of the Year,

2nd. "Trade Policy Disaster: Lessons from the 1930s", and

3rd. "Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression".

You can learn more about Dr. Irwin here:

https://economics.dartmouth.edu/people/douglas-irwin

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/dirwin/

🚩Recommendations:

🎧 https://bit.ly/HbN-S2E26-USDollar: history of the U.S. Dollar.

"The dollar is our currency, but your problem". 1971, U.S. Treasury Secretary to his European counterparts.

🚩Adel Aali

host & producer

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