Podcasts about commerce a history

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?

Jon Hartley and Douglas Irwin discuss Doug's career, the history of US trade policy, tariffs, globalization, the consumer and labor market effects of trade, the World Trade Organization, and industrial policy. Recorded on January 9, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Douglas Irwin is John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2017), which The Economist and Foreign Affairs selected as one of their Best Books of the Year. He is president-elect of the Economic History Association (2022-23). He is the author of Free Trade Under Fire (Princeton University Press, fifth edition 2020), Trade Policy Disaster: Lessons from the 1930s (MIT Press, 2012), Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression (Princeton University Press, 2011), The Genesis of the GATT (Cambridge University Press, 2008, co-authored with Petros Mavroidis and Alan Sykes), Against the Tide:  An Intellectual History of Free Trade (Princeton University Press, 1996), and many articles on trade policy and economic history in books and professional journals. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He worked on trade policy issues while on the staff of President Ronald 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. Before joining Dartmouth, Irwin taught at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Follow Douglas Irwin on X: @D_A_Irwin Jon Hartley is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast at the Hoover Institution and an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, where he specializes in finance, labor economics, and macroeconomics. He is also currently an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), and a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Jon is also a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and serves as chair of the Economic Club of Miami. Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as well as in various policy roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, US Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.  Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes, and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC, and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list, and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/

Colin Grabow is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, and he joins Macro Musings to talk about US trade policies, the Jones Act, and the consequences of this harmful maritime statute. Specifically, David and Colin also discuss the counterfactual world of TPP, the future of international trade, and how to fix the myriad of problems caused by the Jones Act.   Transcript for the episode can be found here: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings   Colin's Twitter: @cpgrabow Colin's Cato Institute profile: https://www.cato.org/people/colin-grabow   Related Links:   Cato's Project on Jones Act Reform: https://www.cato.org/project-jones-act-reform   *The Jones Act: A Burden America Can No Longer Bear* by Colin Grabow, Inu Manak, and Daniel Ikenson https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/jones-act-burden-america-can-no-longer-bear   *Rust Buckets: How the Jones Act Undermines U.S. Shipbuilding and National Security* by Colin Grabow https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/rust-buckets-how-jones-act-undermines-us-shipbuilding-national-security   *The Progressive Case for Jones Act Reform* by Colin Grabow https://www.cato.org/study/progressive-case-jones-act-reform#:~:text=The%20Jones%20Act%20is%20unwise,repeal%2C%20of%20this%20odious%20law   *Candy-Coated Cartel: Time to Kill the U.S. Sugar Program* by Colin Grabow https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/candy-coated-cartel-time-kill-us-sugar-program   *5 Years Later and the United States is Still Paying for Its TPP Blunder* by Colin Grabow https://www.cato.org/blog/5-years-later-united-states-still-paying-tpp-blunder   *The Cato Trade Team's 2022 Policy Wish List* by Scott Lincicome, Inu Manak, Gabriella Beaumont-Smith & Colin Grabow https://www.cato.org/blog/cato-trade-teams-2022-policy-wish-list   *For Inflation Relief, the United States Should Look to Trade Liberalization* by Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Megan Hogan, & Yilin Wang https://www.piie.com/publications/policy-briefs/inflation-relief-united-states-should-look-trade-liberalization#:~:text=For%20inflation%20relief%2C%20the%20United%20States%20should%20look%20to%20trade%20liberalization,-Gary%20Clyde%20Hufbauer&text=With%20US%20inflation%20running%20at,calls%20anticompetitive%20behavior%20by%20corporations   *Biden's Frozen Trade Policy* by Anne Krueger https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-trade-policy-frozen-in-place-under-biden-by-anne-o-krueger-2022-02?barrier=accesspaylog   *Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy* by Douglas Irwin https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo24475328.html   David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth David's blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/

Daniel Griswold is a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center and a nationally recognized expert on trade and immigration policy. Dan is also a returning guest is to the podcast, and joins Macro Musings to talk about immigration policy and the outlook for trade policy with the new Biden Administration. Specifically, David and Dan discuss the major demographic decline in the US, and how greater levels of immigration and can solve many of America’s economic concerns.    Transcript for the episode can be found here: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings   Dan’s Twitter: @danielgriswold Dan’s Mercatus profile: https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/daniel-griswold   Related Links:   *More Immigration Needed to Offset COVID-19 and America’s Demographic Decline* by Daniel Griswold https://www.mercatus.org/publications/trade-and-immigration/more-immigration-needed-offset-covid-19-and-america%E2%80%99s-demographic   *Half a Million Fewer Children? The Coming COVID Baby Bust* by Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine https://www.brookings.edu/research/half-a-million-fewer-children-the-coming-covid-baby-bust/   *World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights* by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division at the United Nations https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf   *The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050* by Joel Kotkin https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/298866/the-next-hundred-million-by-joel-kotkin/9781101195703   *Fertility, Mortality, Migration, and Population Scenarios for 195 Countries and Territories from 2017 to 2100: A Forecasting Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study* by Stein Emil Vollset et al. https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30677-2/fulltext   *Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy* by Douglas Irwin https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo24475328.html   David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

This week the gang talks about President Trump’s trade policies and why trade wars can be bad and hard to win. Do we have a strategy for success, or is the president simply venting frustration through erratic policies? What is the endgame? How do America's economic policies, especially with regard to China, affect U.S. national security? Other highlights: Chris condemns Trump’s attempt to buy Greenland, Melanie finds a CEO worthy of immense respect, and Bryan explains why real British royalty isn’t as appealing as the Netflix version.   Links Chad P. Bown and Douglas A. Irwin, "Trump's Assault on the Global Trading System: And Why Decoupling from China Will Change Everything," Foreign Affairs, September 2019 Chad P. Bown and Melina Kolb, "Trump's Trade War Timeline: An Up-to-Date Guide," Peterson Institute for International Economics, August 13, 2019 Madeleine Kearns, "Royals, Climate Change, and Private Jets," National Review, August 19, 2019 Scott Lincicome, CATO Institute Simon Lester and Huan Zhu, "Closing Pandora's Box: The Growing Abuse of the National Security Rationale for Restricting Trade," CATO Institute, June 25, 2019 "Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy," Cato Institute, January 24, 2018 Pierre Lemieux, “Peter Navarro’s Conversion,” Regulation, Fall 2018 John Harwood, “Americans Overwhelmingly Support Free Trade as Concern Grows About Trump’s Economy: NBC/WSJ Poll,” CNBC, August 19, 2019 Scott Lincicome, "The ‘Protectionist Moment’ That Wasn’t: American Views on Trade and Globalization," Cato Institute, November 2, 2018 "Former Danish PM Lied About Iraq War Plans," Local, July 3, 2015 Tim Marcin, “Denmark to Trump: Seriously, Greenland Isn't for Sale,” Vice News, August 19, 2019 Maggie Fitzgerald, “Here’s What New Tariffs Will Cost the Average American Household,” CNBC, August 19, 2019 “Exploring the Militarization of US Foreign Policy,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August 31, 2019 “The Human Costs of War: Assessing Civilian Casualties since 9/11,” Cato Institute, September 11, 2019

Scholars of US history have treated trade policy in less than enthusiastic ways. One economic historian described tariffs as “extraordinarily uninteresting things unless related to the political events which give them meaning.” While another historian said the tariff has caused “narcolepsy” among his colleagues. One piece of evidence of this sentiment is that the last comprehensive history of of US trade policy was published in the the late 19th century! Despite the seemingly soporific qualities of the subject, Douglas Irwin wrote a 900-page tome on trade policy. The book, Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is remarkably erudite and surprisingly entertaining. Irwin shows how trade policy was at the heart of so many of the major crises and transitions in US history, everything from the Revolution of 1776 to the post-Cold War moment. Indeed, Irwin fashions a focus on tariffs into a new history of the republic itself. Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dexter Fergie is a PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars of US history have treated trade policy in less than enthusiastic ways. One economic historian described tariffs as “extraordinarily uninteresting things unless related to the political events which give them meaning.” While another historian said the tariff has caused “narcolepsy” among his colleagues. One piece of evidence of this sentiment is that the last comprehensive history of of US trade policy was published in the the late 19th century! Despite the seemingly soporific qualities of the subject, Douglas Irwin wrote a 900-page tome on trade policy. The book, Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is remarkably erudite and surprisingly entertaining. Irwin shows how trade policy was at the heart of so many of the major crises and transitions in US history, everything from the Revolution of 1776 to the post-Cold War moment. Indeed, Irwin fashions a focus on tariffs into a new history of the republic itself. Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dexter Fergie is a PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars of US history have treated trade policy in less than enthusiastic ways. One economic historian described tariffs as “extraordinarily uninteresting things unless related to the political events which give them meaning.” While another historian said the tariff has caused “narcolepsy” among his colleagues. One piece of evidence of this sentiment is that the last comprehensive history of of US trade policy was published in the the late 19th century! Despite the seemingly soporific qualities of the subject, Douglas Irwin wrote a 900-page tome on trade policy. The book, Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is remarkably erudite and surprisingly entertaining. Irwin shows how trade policy was at the heart of so many of the major crises and transitions in US history, everything from the Revolution of 1776 to the post-Cold War moment. Indeed, Irwin fashions a focus on tariffs into a new history of the republic itself. Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dexter Fergie is a PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars of US history have treated trade policy in less than enthusiastic ways. One economic historian described tariffs as “extraordinarily uninteresting things unless related to the political events which give them meaning.” While another historian said the tariff has caused “narcolepsy” among his colleagues. One piece of evidence of this sentiment is that the last comprehensive history of of US trade policy was published in the the late 19th century! Despite the seemingly soporific qualities of the subject, Douglas Irwin wrote a 900-page tome on trade policy. The book, Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is remarkably erudite and surprisingly entertaining. Irwin shows how trade policy was at the heart of so many of the major crises and transitions in US history, everything from the Revolution of 1776 to the post-Cold War moment. Indeed, Irwin fashions a focus on tariffs into a new history of the republic itself. Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dexter Fergie is a PhD student of US and global history at Northwestern University. He is currently researching the 20th century geopolitical history of information and communications networks. He can be reached by email at dexter.fergie@u.northwestern.edu or on Twitter @DexterFergie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don Boudreaux is a professor of economics at George Mason University as well as the co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center. He joins the show today to talk about the future of trade and globalization. David and Don also discuss the history of protectionism in the US, President Trump’s trade policies, and why the China Shock thesis may signal bad economics. Don’s blog: https://cafehayek.com/ Don’s Mercatus Profile: https://www.mercatus.org/donald-j-boudreaux Related Links: *Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy* by Doug Irwin https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo24475328.html *Tariffs, Immigration, and Economic Insulation: A New View of the U.S. Post-Civil War Era*by Cecil Bohanon and Norman Van Cott https://www.jstor.org/stable/24562083?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents *The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade* by David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson https://www.nber.org/papers/w21906 David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

What will be the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on iron and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU – as well as the existing impost on goods from China. Phil Dobbie talks to Douglas Irwin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy, and numerous other books on international trade and protectionism.

Trade plays a huge role in the wealth that Americans enjoy, so why has it been so controversial? Douglas A. Irwin is author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of the Economist talk with PIIE Senior Fellow Douglas Irwin about his recent book Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy and the role...

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of the Economist talk with PIIE Senior Fellow Douglas Irwin about his recent book Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy and the role...

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of the Economist talk with PIIE Senior Fellow Douglas Irwin about his recent book Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy and the role...

Trade, tariffs, and America’s role in the global economy have taken center stage in the public policy debate during the first year of Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency. That’s not surprising to economic historian and Dartmouth economics professor Douglas A. Irwin, whose latest treatise on the subject documents in exquisite detail how “the Tariff” has sparked passionate political, economic, and constitutional debate and has been a source of bitter political conflict from the Founding of the Republic to the present. Between 1787 and the Civil War, the main purpose of the tariff was to raise revenues for the operations of a modest federal government, which had few other sources of revenue. Although arguments for using the tariff to protect domestic industry prevailed on occasion during this era, it wasn’t until after the Civil War that bald protectionism became the tariff’s primary motive. In the early 1930s, as the disastrous effects of the Tariff Act of 1930 (i.e., “Smoot-Hawley” or “the Hawley-Smoot Tariff,” as Irwin calls it) were rippling across the globe, the tariff was repurposed, again, for the nobler objective of inducing governments to agree to reciprocal reductions in their border protectionism. According to Irwin’s thesis, from the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act to the founding of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947, through the multiple GATT rounds culminating in the founding of the World Trade Organization in 1995, and through the Obama presidency, reciprocal trade liberalization was the main purpose of the tariff. Will Congress acquiesce in a new purpose for the tariff or will it assert its authority against a new president who considers protectionism a tool to make America great again? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Douglas Irwin is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a leading expert on trade economics. Today, he joins the show to discuss his new book, *Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy,* which examines the history of American trade policy from the late 1700s to the present. Doug explains how US attitudes toward trade evolved over time and how free trade became the postwar consensus. Specifically, Doug argues that the history of US trade policy has been guided by the “three R’s: revenue, restriction, and reciprocity.” Finally, David and Doug discuss some of Doug’s work on the gold standard and the Great Depression. David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/ Macro Musings podcast site: macromusings.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth Douglas Irwin’s homepage: www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/ Douglas Irwin’s Twitter: @D_A_Irwin Related links: *Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy* by Douglas A. Irwin http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo24475328.html “Steve Bannon’s Bad History” by Douglas A. Irwin https://www.wsj.com/articles/steve-bannons-bad-history-1505861920 The Truth About Trade: What Critics Get Wrong About the Global Economy” (Foreign Affairs) by Douglas A. Irwin www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016…h-about-trade *Free Trade Under Fire (Princeton University Press, fourth edition 2015)* by Douglas A. Irwin www.amazon.com/Free-Trade-under-…rth/dp/0691166250