Welcome to The Boiling Frog reboot! The first 26 episodes were examinations of general topics,  such as understanding capitalism, how social psychology belies the principles of capitalism, and how this all shapes political dialog. The new podcasts will look at specific policies of the new administration and use those as case studies to illustrate the real-life impact of those general concepts.

We start with tariffs, a word that Donald Trump loves and is already deploying across multiple sectors and trading partners. The principles we examine go back to two earlier podcasts – our very first one, Laissez Frog, which was about capitalism in general, and our 21st episode, Greenbacks, which was about taxes.

In this podcast, we examine why we have international trade in the first place, and how this is an extension of the general principles of capitalism (introducing the economic concept of Comparative Advantage). We then talk about the justifications for tariffs, the potential benefits and challenges with them, and an examination of who really “pays” for the tariff, which is related to another economic concept, Price Elasticity of Demand.

Tariffs are more complex than most people think. There is the tradeoff between protecting an industry (and potentially jobs in that sector) and making consumers pay higher prices, as well as potential harm to industries downstream of the tariffed products. But we also discuss multiple responses to tariffs, including gaming, noncompliance, smuggling, and currency manipulation. However, there are even more macroeconomic effects, including on the value of the dollar and interest rates, all of which are part of a feedback loop which, in part, offsets the economic and political goals a tariff tries to achieve in the first place.

Lastly, we explore the geopolitical ramifications of tariffs, particularly as Donald Trump uses them as an extension of cross-border power and influence to achieve non-economic goals. We examine the multiple ways that his approach will likely hurt America in the long-term.

Key Terms Used

Comparative Advantage, Elasticity, Externality, Friction (economic), Kakistocracy, Laissez Faire. Natural Monopoly, Opportunity Cost, Protectionism, Public Good, Regressive Tax, Structural Unemployment

Related Resources

To be added