The Economics of Tariffs and Trade (with Doug Irwin)

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We'd love to hear from you. Today is April 22nd, 2025, and my guest is economist and author Doug Irwin of Dartmouth College. Where he is the John French professor of economics. Our topic for today is tariffs, trade, trade deficits, and this rather dramatic moment we're in the middle of, although by the time this airs, things of course could be radically different. So we're going to stick to the basics, um, hoping to create a primer for listeners, clearing up some fundamental misunderstandings some people are having.

Although I suspect at the end we'll touch on some of the details of this moment in particular. Doug last appeared on Econ Talk in October of 2010 discussing the Great Depression and the gold standard, an episode I highly recommend. Doug, welcome back to Econ Talk. Thanks for having me. Good to be here.

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