America’s Most Expensive Lie: Why Tariffs Are Killing What They Claim to Save

Violence subsumes us this week, but at the end of the day, it’s still the economy that impacts all of us.Politicians sell tariffs as job protection, but economist Kimberly Clausing cuts through the spin: They’re a direct assault on working families’ wallets while destroying the very manufacturing jobs they claim to save. In this recent WhoWhatWhy podcast The former Treasury official and UCLA professor talks to me about how Donald Trump’s trade war has become an expensive lesson in economic self-sabotage.Clausing walks through the real costs: $2,500 annually per household from existing tariffs, with over half of our imports being materials that American companies need to stay competitive. When those costs rise, US manufacturers become less competitive globally, leading to layoffs rather than job creation.The conversation reveals how political rhetoric about trade obscures where the money actually goes — from working families paying higher prices to corporations and governments collecting tariff revenues, funding a policy approach that economists broadly agree makes little economic sense. Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe