Douglas Irwin
@D_A_Irwin
Trade economist/economic history @DartmouthEcon, @PIIE, @NBERpubs
Goodbye to double digit royalty checks. . . You can now freely download pdf chapters of Clashing over Commerce on the @nberpubs website! nber.org/books-and-chap…
Had to write a letter on the effort of national conservatives to draft Reagan to their side Letters: Reagan Prized Free Markets wsj.com/opinion/reagan… via @WSJopinion
.@Birdyword is probably right. Hard for Dems, especially if they keep drifting left, to campaign on lower tariffs. As @D_A_Irwin told me last year: “These things are easy to impose and hard to remove. The project of removing the trade barriers that accumulated during the Great…
I now think in a few years, certainly after the next presidential election, cross-party elite opinion will have gravitated towards a soft consensus that the Trump tariffs, while slapdash and sometimes misdirected, were net good and trade barriers should have been higher earlier.
Gulp . . . getting 1930s vibes . . .
Russia is militarizing for war with Europe. Putin told his generals: The new state armament program must focus on developing the most advanced weapon systems. Where we are now is the result of decisions made 10 years ago. 1/
Conventional wisdom check....
A lot of people think American wages have stagnated during the era of hyper-globalization since the mid-1990s. In fact, that's when American wage growth ACCELERATED. noahpinion.blog/p/so-why-did-u…
Some great lines from @davidfrum "There is no socialist way to create wealth. There is only a socialist way to spend wealth." "While Trump’s behavior discredits markets, his rhetoric vilifies markets." & more . . . theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
How exactly did the 1991 trade reforms in India materialize? Hear @D_A_Irwin speak in an online talk @IIMAhmedabad on July 22, 7pm IST. Register here: iima.zoom.us/webinar/regist…
A Deplete America First policy
HASSETT: 50% U.S. COPPER TARIFFS ARE AIMED AT PROMOTING U.S. PRODUCTION
Key point...if you have to announce economic policy changes on Friday night or Saturday to avoid the market reaction, you know it won't be good.
It might give you a sense of the White House's own fears that the tariff letters to the EU and Mexico bore yesterday's date, but they waited until Saturday morning -- when the markets are closed -- to actually release them.
**** SOME NEWS **** The old @Trade__Talks team is back together... but instead of podcasting, @ChadBown and I are writing a book! It's called "How to Win a Trade War" and it'll be out next Spring.
Heartbreaking to the extent that US tariff policy contributed to this ... bbc.com/news/articles/…
June 25th is the anniversary of a major victory in the annals of free trade, free markets, and free people: the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws by the British House of Lords Half of the British people’s income during the 1830s and 1840s was spent on food. The country was rife with…
“We dismantled the License-Permit Raj, but the job’s not done.” - Dr. Rakesh Mohan reflects on dismantling the License Permit Raj & India’s 1991 reforms on the @IdeasofIndia podcast with @srajagopalan. A fascinating look at how India moved from control to liberalisation, what’s…
This NEW lesson details the history of U.S. tariff policy and features @AHAhistorians' Alexandra Levy, economics professor @D_A_Irwin (@dartmouth), and history professors Eric Rauchway (@ucdavis) and Sharon Ann Murphy (@ProvidenceCol): c-span.org/classroom/docu…. #Tariff #GovChat
Doug Irwin's Presidential address to the Economic History Association from Sep 2025 is now published online and open access. Great stuff! @D_A_Irwin cambridge.org/core/journals/…
It’s been 95 years since the Smoot-Hawley Act, leading to 20% tariffs that widened and deepened the Great Depression. Some of Trump’s tariffs are just as high or higher. We must avoid repeating this historical policy mistake. youtu.be/rAMb2oa1JWc?fe…
Milei goes after the protected industries of Tierra del Fuego (click on image) on.ft.com/43WGVF5 via @FT
