|
If “beggar-thy-neighbor” sounds like an old phrase from a long-dead economist, that’s because it is. Adam Smith, the 18th-century thinker who also popularized the phrase “the invisible hand,” used it.
But “beggar-thy-neighbor” is a fitting label for the Trump team’s tariff fixation, as trade economist Bedassa Tadesse argues.
At its core is a familiar idea: A country can boost its own economy by punishing others. But in a world where supply chains crisscross continents, the real victims of beggar-thy-neighbor policies are often domestic industries, workers and allies caught in the crossfire.
Tadesse unpacks the Trump administration’s recent announcement of sweeping import duties – followed by a head-spinning 90-day pause on some but not all of them – and draws a line from the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 to the soybean standoffs of today.
Spoiler alert: History doesn’t exactly cheer this strategy on.
This week we also liked articles about corporate complicity during the Holocaust, bands that become opening acts for more successful performers, and twins’ allergies.
[ The latest on philanthropy and nonprofits. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Giving Today.]
|
Doublemint gum is displayed for sale in a Walmart supermarket in Beijing on April 10, 2025.
Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
Bedassa Tadesse, University of Minnesota Duluth
As the US imposes more tariffs, a global backlash is brewing – from subtle trade barriers to strategic countermeasures targeting red-state industries.
|
If one has a reaction to a new food, is the other more likely to as well?
BjelicaS/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Breanne Hayes Haney, West Virginia University
An allergic reaction happens when your immune system overreacts to something that should be harmless. Whether that happens can be thanks to your genes, your environment or a combination.
|
A 2024 study examined how voters perceive claims that Christians experience widespread discrimination.
JTSorrell/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Rosemary (Marah) Al-Kire, University of Washington; Clara L. Wilkins, University of Washington; Michael Pasek, University of Illinois Chicago
Some Americans hear claims of anti-Christian bias as a signal of white solidarity, according to a 2024 study.
|
|
|
-
Jeff Apruzzese, Drexel University
Touring has become one of the few reliable income streams for working musicians. But a new study finds that the benefits from opening for major artists are often fleeting.
-
Dennis W. Jansen, Texas A&M University
Steps taken to reform Social Security during the Biden and Trump administrations have only made the prospects for a funding crisis more serious.
-
Sarah Federman, University of San Diego
Even when companies do not face legal liability, public pressure can help force a reckoning with complicity in genocide, slavery and other atrocities.
|
|
The Conversation News Quiz 🧠
|
-
Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation
Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:
Last month, a 6th grade history teacher in Idaho was ordered to remove a poster from her classroom with what message, deemed too controversial by school district officials?
- A. “Hot for Teacher”
- B. “Everyone is Welcome Here”
- C. “Make America Read Again”
- D. “You Say Po-tay-to, I Say Po-tah-to”
Test your knowledge
|
|
