An Economics Lesson from a Talking Pencil (Update)

Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner. We've all been hearing a lot lately about international trade and especially the restrictions on trade in the form of tariffs. President Trump, defending his tariff policy on meet the press, said that restricting trade means Americans will have to make do with less stuff, but that that's okay. I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs that's eleven years old needs to have thirty dolls.

I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. They don't need to have 250 pencils, they can have five. Most economists think that tariffs are a bad idea. They argue that restricting trade has more downsides than upsides. Elon Musk, back when he was still the president's first buddy, was in that camp and he reportedly urged

Trump to reverse the tariffs. Musk also posted an interesting video on X, formerly known as Twitter. There's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. Remarkable statement? Not at all.

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