tariffs

Trade wars could happen constantly, yet for decades they mostly did not. The reason is a rulebook: the WTO, the most-favored-nation principle, and a web of trade agreements built to channel conflict into procedure instead of escalation. Learn how the system works, why non-tariff barriers often matter more than tariffs, and how trade disputes are meant to be settled.

A single tariff rarely stays single. The country you tax taxes you back, chosen to hurt where it stings most, and an escalation spiral can leave both sides worse off. Learn the mechanics of retaliation, why trade wars resemble a game where cooperation is best but defection is tempting, how supply chains reroute around barriers, and the hidden cost of uncertainty itself.

If a tariff is mostly paid at home, why do governments impose them at all? Because tariffs do several jobs at once: raise revenue, shield domestic industries, build strategic capacity, and pressure other countries. Learn each rationale, the gains-from-trade logic they push against, and the real trade-off every tariff makes between concentrated benefits and spread-out costs.

A tariff is a tax on imports, and almost everything people believe about who pays it is wrong. Learn the mechanism: who legally hands over the money at the border, the difference between who pays and who bears the cost, how that cost splits between foreign exporters, importers, and consumers, and what decades of economic studies actually measure.