Brad DeLong tells Imran Garda that Trump’s tariffs, aimed at traditional allies and enemies alike, are a “chaos monkey” move, and a disastrously bad idea for the U.S. economy.
While Trump embraces the legacy of President McKinley and calls himself a “tariff man,” DeLong argues that what may have worked in the 19th century simply won’t work today.
On this episode of The InnerView, DeLong breaks down three reasons why. He also talks about the rise of populist movements past and present, and explains what could happen if Trump takes an even harder line on immigration.
DeLong is an economic historian, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, and the author of this Substack: https://braddelong.substack.com/
00:00 U.S. tariffs
00:39 Meet Brad DeLong
01:27 “Trump’s tariffs are a terrible economic policy move”
05:35 The chaos monkey policy
08:42 Will tariffs trigger a price surge? Do Trump’s supporters understand the cost?
10:12 Why Americans see the economy so differently
12:23 Policy fallout, media power, and the populist wave
16:10 Did tariffs ever work? And why they won’t now?
17:39 On the populist playbook
18:34 Brexit
19:44 NAFTA and the immigration debate
23:35 One Big Beautiful Bill
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