This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Friday, April 4th.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom.

As you have no doubt been hearing, President Trump introduced a sweeping

round of new tariffs late in the day on Wednesday, April 2nd. He called it Liberation Day.

So yesterday was the first full day for markets to absorb and respond to these new policies. And what a response it was.

Did you look at your retirement accounts?

Reuters is reporting that companies on the S&P 500 lost $2.4 trillion in stock market value yesterday.

Their biggest one-day loss in value since March 16th,

2020. That was back when the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging. There is a lot to unpack here

about how consumers will start to feel and see the impact of these tariffs, recession fears,

and how an escalating global trade war stands to isolate the United

States, reversing decades of trade policy that arguably go hand-in-hand with our foreign policy.

So to help us with all of that and to answer your questions in mind, I'm joined by Catherine

Ann Edwards, economist and economic policy consultant. her recent column for Bloomberg is headlined,

The Coming U.S. recession will be self-inflicted. So, no mincing words on where she stands on this

issue. Catherine, welcome to WNYC. Thank you so much for having me, and good morning. Good morning.

Okay, Catherine, a lot of coverage of these tariffs,

but I want to take a little bit of a step back and just make sure we're all starting from the

same page. Looking for a quick Tariffs 101. So first, can you just remind us what a tariff is

and what kind of tariffs President Trump announced this week?

The simplest way to think of a tariff is that it's an import tax. You have to pay to bring in goods

...