EPISODE · Apr 12, 2025 · 1H 7M
Tariffs 101: Trade, Taxes and Revenues in U.S. History (G&R 376)
from Green & Red: Podcasts for Scrappy Radicals · host Green and Red
Everyone's talking about tariffs . . . but do we really know what they are, how they work, what their purpose is?Scott and Bob give backgrounder on tariffs from a historical perspective (we're not economists) and discuss the reason they are used in global economic relationships and describe some of the reasons that American founders advocated for them (hint, it's not about revenues--it's for capitalist development of industry). We also discuss the political meaning of the tariff--they're part of a dispute over trade policy between northern manufacturing and southern agriculture (the so-called Tariff of Abominations) from the early 19th century through the McKinley Tariff years. Then we described the advent of the Free Trade era and how tariffs became less important (a federal income tax replaced tariffs as a main source of revenue as the U.S. grew into an economic power--tariff revenues weren't adequate for the needs of a growing imperial power by the early 20th century--and how that began to shift after World War II. And we finished up by briefly discussing how ill-developed and damaging Trump's tariffs will be.------------------------------Outro- "He’s A Heartache" by Janie Fricke Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast +Our rad website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/3a6AX7Qy)+Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: https://www.laborradionetwork.org/ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.
What this episode covers
Everyone's talking about tariffs . . . but do we really know what they are, how they work, what their purpose is?Scott and Bob give backgrounder on tariffs from a historical perspective (we're not economists) and discuss the reason they are used in global economic relationships and describe some of the reasons that American founders advocated for them (hint, it's not about revenues--it's for capitalist development of industry). We also discuss the political meaning of the tariff--they're part of a dispute over trade policy between northern manufacturing and southern agriculture (the so-called Tariff of Abominations) from the early 19th century through the McKinley Tariff years. Then we described the advent of the Free Trade era and how tariffs became less important (a federal income tax replaced tariffs as a main source of revenue as the U.S. grew into an economic power--tariff revenues weren't adequate for the needs of a growing imperial power by the early 20th century--and how that began to shift after World War II. And we finished up by briefly discussing how ill-developed and damaging Trump's tariffs will be.------------------------------Outro- "He’s A Heartache" by Janie Fricke Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast +Our rad website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/3a6AX7Qy)+Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: https://www.laborradionetwork.org/ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.
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Tariffs 101: Trade, Taxes and Revenues in U.S. History (G&R 376)
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