Corruption and influence-peddling have long been major problems with tariffs, and they may also help explain why Trump so loves them: gathering in his hands total ongoing discretion over every tariff gives pretty much every important business and nation a strong ongoing reason to court his favor.
"Until Congress reasserts its constitutional authority over tariffs and other policy matters, the institutional decline and corruption enabled by Mr. Trump’s agenda will continue," write Shane Ball and Kimberly Clausing.
Today w/ @shaneball.bsky.social in @nytimes.com.
I used to think the Trump tariffs were about not understanding economics.
Then that they were about disguising a shift in tax burdens.
Those may both be true; yet the dominant aim may well be power/corruption.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...
JCT is live streaming its 100th birthday celebration on March 4. (I'm on the panel) www.jct.gov/live-stream/
CBAM backsliding would provide only minimal price relief to farmers, while hurting the prospects of EU fertiliser producers, argue @kclausing.bsky.social, Ignacio García Bercero, @mpereboom.bsky.social & @cwolfram.bsky.social
🔗 buff.ly/HdgPdrT
#EconSky
New piece out @bruegel.org with Ignacio García Bercero, @mpereboom.bsky.social, and @cwolfram.bsky.social.
In which we describe why exempting fertilizer from the EU's CBAM will do little to nothing for farmers, while weakening an important climate policy tool.
www.bruegel.org/first-glance...
(6/6) Finally, at more length, we discuss whether it makes sense to think of the United States as having balance of payments problems.
In short, it does not.
See the piece for all the details.
www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
(5/6) And Trump has plenty of cards to play with trading partners.
(4/6) But there is also bad news.
Tariffs will continue, alongside distortion, business uncertainty, consumer costs, and rampant opportunities for corruption and rent-seeking.
(3/6) These tariffs also expire in five months, unless there is an Act of Congress. Calling the question with Congress will not be successful, especially given the fact that this is a midterm election year, affordability is front of mind, and tariffs are deeply unpopular.
(2/6) Another good and important development: the President’s tariff cudgel is weaker. An even across-the-board tariff makes it hard to play foreign governments off each other.
(1/6) In my recent piece with Maurice Obstfeld @piie.com, we describe features of today’s US tariff environment. There are three bits of good news and bad news, but it is clear that Section 122 doesn’t apply.
Most Important Good News:
The Court defended separation of powers.
The president’s own lawyers argued in the IEEPA case that Section 122 was no substitute for IEEPA, since balance of payment deficits are conceptually distinct from the current account & trade deficits that Trump has characterized as an emergency. By @kclausing.bsky.social & Maurice Obstfeld:
My blog post today with Maurice Obstfeld.
We discuss the Supreme Court ruling, the pivot to Section 122, why that too is inapplicable, implications for trading partners, and what next.
What the Supreme Court's tariff ruling changes, and what it doesn't www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
A must-read in Europe and beyond.
Persuasive commentary from my terrific coauthor @cwolfram.bsky.social .
Everyone can, if they are willing to get pre-screened, which would speed up travel for the whole system. For people who travel very infrequently, though, the pre-screening may not be worth their time.
It's unclear how making the most prepared and screened travelers spend more time in screening saves staff time. (Or even helps Noem convince the public that she's not part of the problem.)
wapo.st/4aw9RZ2
I haven't seen, but it certainly strengthens their hand, a large reason to rework or cancel. (A good thing.)
By 6-3 decision, tariffs struck down.
Unsurprisingly (for many), Trump's tariffs have not lead to an improvement in many of the metrics by which the Administration judges them.
U.S. Imports Grew in 2025, as Trump’s Tariffs Reshuffled Global Trade www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/b...
The most up to date version of the paper is here: allanhsiao.com/files/CCHW_c...
(1/2) Such a pleasure discussing the importance of the EU CBAM for climate policy with Arvid Viaene. Listen to his podcast to hear more about our work on the Global Effects of CBAM, with @allanhsiao.bsky.social @cwolfram.bsky.social and
@jmcolmer.bsky.social.
www.buzzsprout.com/2412056/epis...
Republican rule vote FAILS.
Republican leaders just tried to use a procedural vote to continue their surrender of congressional powers to prevent Trump's abuse of tariff authorities.
Three Republicans, Reps. Massie, Bacon, and Kiley, joined all Democrats to block them.
If the WSJ is noticing it must be true
www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
We need more conversations across the divide, and I can think of no better person to further these conversations than Secretary Buttigieg.
Pete Returns to Fox News youtu.be/c000vQXggH4?...
Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home.
For those of you wondering how to help those in Minneapolis St Paul, an excellent list of resources is here, including both food support and legal assistance groups.
mspmag.com/arts-and-cul...
They shot Renee Good in the face.
They kidnapped Liam Ramos.
They just executed a man on the street.
Unmask them. Prosecute them. No more secret police.
Lifting this up again. A huge problem now is that there’s a giant slush fund for ICE & CBP separate from annual funding — that Trump can continue to use even during a shutdown.
Ds *must* make rescinding those pots of money the price of any future funding deals, as Rs did w/ IRS money from the IRA.
My son is this age and I just keep looking at this photograph, unable to form a sentence that's not just a howl of rage
