Summer School 7: Trade blocks and blockages

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tariffs are the favorite tool of our current president, but there are lots of other ways that governments insert themselves into the free exchange of goods and services. Some of these trade barriers are so insidious and have been going on for so long that it may surprise you that they even exist.

We bring you the classic story of what happens when you try to protect an American industry and end up hurting another American industry. Well intentioned plans turn into trade barriers that make our lives more expensive.

Check out our Summer School video cheat sheet TikTok.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:07.8	Welcome back to Planet Money Summer School.
0:10.2	The only economics class you can slip under your pillow and listen to as you fall asleep.
0:16.4	Just drift away.
0:20.8	I'll wake you for the vocabulary words. We are almost done with the summer
0:26.2	semester, and what a romp we have had through the world of government and business. We've
0:31.2	had classes on the power of federal taxes and the dangers of federal spending. We've taught
0:35.8	you how a country can make industrial policy work
0:38.2	and why sometimes markets fail. But there is one big area we have not touched until today.
0:45.3	Trade. Yes, yes, I know, as I'm sure you have noticed, trade policy, specifically tariffs,
0:51.8	are in the news every single day. So today on Planet Money Summer School,
0:57.8	we're going to step back a little and talk about the bigger picture of trade policy.
1:02.3	Tariffs are, of course, the favorite tool of our current president, but there are lots of
1:06.1	other ways that governments insert themselves into the free exchange of goods and services.
1:11.3	Some of these trade barriers are so insidious and have been going on for so long,
1:15.5	it may surprise you that they even exist.
1:18.6	But in fact, we will feature two of them today that are costing you money every single day.
1:24.4	Maybe you should wake up for this part.
1:26.2	Our guest professor is an expert in all forms of trade
1:29.1	shenanigans. My name is Carolyn Freund, and I'm the dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy
1:34.5	at UC San Diego. Come for the policy, stay for the strategy. Oh, I like that. Maybe we can use that
1:41.8	as a slogan. You can put that on a T-shirt. Thank you. So before we hear our case studies,
	...

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