Oct 27, 2026 · 55 min · 9 segments
Are the President's tariffs protecting American industry, or making the economy less efficient and more vulnerable to political favoritism? On this episode of *The Economist Next Door*, host Paul…
Phil MagnessGuestDave HebertGuestSo where we've gone in the weeds, you guys are studying this stuff and know it so well.
Let's zoom out a little bit for some of the very... back of the envelope arguments, general arguments that people make.
So a lot of people who are not following this closely don't see how capricious this policy is.
It's just sort of like, they're just like, okay, there's some tariffs out there.
So one narrative that I often have a hard time wrapping my mind around or figuring out how to explain to people is there's this claim, and Phil, I think you alluded to this earlier, that other countries don't treat the United States fairly.
So people say other countries have high tariffs on U.S. goods or this term non-tariff barriers.
I mean, how do you answer that question? But What would you say, kind of at a high level, is there any merit to the claim or the concern that other countries tend to be fairly protectionist? They don't treat U.S.
companies fairly, either with high tariff rates on U.S. goods or non-tariff barriers that kind of have been neglected in World Trade Organization deals.
Is there any water to this? How do you think about this? Or how would you describe this? Has the U.S.
been getting a raw deal, not economically, but just from like a policy standpoint? Just in general, like
Well, you know, prior to Trump taking office, there are multiple different ways of measuring this.
So where we've gone in the weeds, you guys are studying this stuff and know it so well.
Let's zoom out a little bit for some of the very... back of the envelope arguments, general arguments that people make.
So a lot of people who are not following this closely don't see how capricious this policy is.
It's just sort of like, they're just like, okay, there's some tariffs out there.
So one narrative that I often have a hard time wrapping my mind around or figuring out how to explain to people is there's this claim, and Phil, I think you alluded to this earlier, that other countries don't treat the United States fairly.
So people say other countries have high tariffs on U.S. goods or this term non-tariff barriers.
I mean, how do you answer that question? But What would you say, kind of at a high level, is there any merit to the claim or the concern that other countries tend to be fairly protectionist? They don't treat U.S.
companies fairly, either with high tariff rates on U.S. goods or non-tariff barriers that kind of have been neglected in World Trade Organization deals.
Is there any water to this? How do you think about this? Or how would you describe this? Has the U.S.
been getting a raw deal, not economically, but just from like a policy standpoint? Just in general, like
Well, you know, prior to Trump taking office, there are multiple different ways of measuring this.
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