Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

What are tariffs good for?

For years, mainstream economists have basically said: tariffs are not good. They are an import tax paid by consumers, they've said, and they discourage free trade, and we want more! Because free trade has broadly led to more global economic growth.

But global trade hasn't been all positive for Americans, and in the worldview of President Trump's administration, tariffs can be used to right some of those wrongs. And the U.S. has economic leverage. So if the U.S. wants to level the playing field, it should use that leverage, and use tariffs to accomplish its policy goals.

Today on the show: the case for tariffs. We talk to a lonely economist who's been sounding the alarm for years that more and free-er trade isn't always better. And we speak to economists in President Trump's orbit who make the case for how tariffs can be a potent economic and political tool.

This episode was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Meg Cramer. It was fact-checked by Sarah McClure and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Music: Universal Music Production: "Funky Reverie" and "With It;" Audio Network: "Slush Puppy Soul."

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On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Nava Ashraf delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring the role of trust and institutions and focusing on female entrepreneurship in developing countries, particularly Zambia. Ashraf argues that trust, institutional fairness, and negotiation skills matter for gender equity and economic development.

Nava Ashraf is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is also the Co-Director of the STICERD Psychology and Economics Programme.

Her research combines psychology and economics using both lab and field experiments to test insights from behavioral economics in the context of global development, particularly digging into health and educational services. Ashraf explores intrahousehold decision-making and gender norms in the areas of finance, fertility, and labor force participation. Her work examines thorny questions like the role of trust and power dynamics in institutions, how flourishing takes place, and the importance of imagination and creativity in human flourishing.

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!

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We reach for it twice a day — without thinking about the decades of research and engineering that went into that squeezable tube of minty goo. Zachary Crockett extracts the last bit.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Stephan Habif, chief technology officer at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Sergio Leite, global head of Oral Care R&D at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Peter Miskell, professor of international business history at the University of Reading.

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "History of Toothpaste" (Delta Dental of Arkansas, 2019).
  • "Cavity Protection or Cosmetic Perfection? Innovation and Marketing of Toothpaste Brands in the United States and Western Europe, 1955–1985," by Peter Miskell (Business History Review, 2011).

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "9,000-Year-Old Dentistry," by WIRED Staff (WIRED, 2006).

We reach for it twice a day — without thinking about the decades of research and engineering that went into that squeezable tube of minty goo. Zachary Crockett extracts the last bit.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Stephan Habif, chief technology officer at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Sergio Leite, global head of Oral Care R&D at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Peter Miskell, professor of international business history at the University of Reading.

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "History of Toothpaste" (Delta Dental of Arkansas, 2019).
  • "Cavity Protection or Cosmetic Perfection? Innovation and Marketing of Toothpaste Brands in the United States and Western Europe, 1955–1985," by Peter Miskell (Business History Review, 2011).

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "9,000-Year-Old Dentistry," by WIRED Staff (WIRED, 2006).

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? This episode, we partner with Radiolab to take stock of the essential raw materials that enable us to live as we do here on Earth — everything from sand to copper to oil — and tally up how much we have left. Are we living with reckless abandon? And if so, is there even a way to stop? A simultaneously terrifying and delightful conversation about bird poop, daredevil drivers, and some staggering back-of-the-envelope math.

Radiolab's original episode was produced and edited by Pat Walters and Soren Wheeler. Fact-checking by Natalie Middleton. The Planet Money edition of this episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Alex Goldmark and Jess Jiang. Special thanks to Jennifer Brandel.

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Music: NPR Source Audio - "Wir Rollen"

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Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. Where does all this sludge come from — and how much is it costing us? (Part one of a two-part series.)

The post Sludge, Part 1: The World Is Drowning in It appeared first on Freakonomics.

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The deal seemed too good to be true. There's a website that's been selling top quality diamonds at bizarrely low prices. Prices we couldn't find at any retail outlet. Prices so low, we could buy a diamond on a public radio budget. So we did. What we got in the mail was a tiny ziploc bag containing a scintillating mystery.

On today's show: the Planet Money Diamond (or whatever this sparkly rock turns out to be). We get it analyzed by the experts at the Gemological Institute of America. We investigate where it came from. And, we dive into the economics of glittery stones. Was this a new kind of internet scam? Some supply chain anomaly? Or is something just really weird going on in the world of diamonds?

This episode was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Keith Romer with help from Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Emma Peaslee, and engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

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A full-length conversation with Robert Sullivan, who wrote the best book on rats you’ll ever read. To get subscriber-only episodes, sign up for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

The post The Rat Man appeared first on Freakonomics.

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When a Fortune 500 company needs a new leader, it turns to a well-connected headhunter who assesses candidates with psychological tests and mock TV interviews. Zachary Crockett activates his network.  

 

• SOURCES:
  • Julian Ha, partner at the executive recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles.
  • Jane Stevenson, global vice chair of board and CEO services at Korn Ferry.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "The Transformation of the CEO," by Stephen Langton, Rusty O'Kelley, Laura Sanderson, and Sean Roberts (Russell Reynolds Associates, 2024).
  • "Executive Paywatch" (AFL-CIO, 2023).
  • "Diversity matters even more: The case for holistic impact," by Dame Vivian Hunt, Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle, Celia Huber, María del Mar Martínez Márquez, Sara Prince, and Ashley Thomas (McKinsey & Company, 2023).
  • "CEO Tenure Rates," by Joyce Chen (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governenance, 2023).
  • "Best Industries to Recruit for in the US" (Precision Global Consulting).

There's one statistic that rules them all when it comes to keeping track of the economy: gross domestic product (GDP). It's the sum of all final transactions, so all the goods or services bought and sold, in an economy. GDP tells us how hot the economy is running, or how cool — like if we might be heading into a recession. And it's an important tool to compare countries, policies, and politicians. It's used by the U.S. government to allocate money and by businesses to make decisions about the future.

For close to a century the building blocks of GDP have been the same. Now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has proposed a big change: taking government spending out of GDP.

On today's show, can the U.S. change how it measures GDP? We talk with a former head of the BEA — about what he thinks they're likely to do now, and about the pressure he faced while trying to compile GDP for nearly two decades. Turns out, people have always been trying to bend it to make whatever grand project they're working on look better.

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Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

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