Trump is returning to office with many of the same policies that characterised his last term. And for economists, none looms larger than the prospect of significant new tariffs. But are tariffs really as destructive as feared? After all, the Biden administration maintained most of them and the economy has remained strong. Today on the show, we put the question to Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA, and formerly lead economist in the Biden administration's Office for Tax Policy.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Michael Clemens of George Mason University is an expert on the economics of migration, and a scholar of its history. With the newly elected President Trump promising to deport millions of immigrants, we thought it was the perfect time to talk about what illegal immigrants mean to the present economy and, more pressingly, what an economy without them might look like.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2025, some major provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are going to expire. Meanwhile, spending is likely to rise. That means there is going to be a conversation about tax policy. Natasha Sarin was a counselor to Treasury secretary Janet Yellen at the US Treasury, and is now a professor at Yale and president of the Budget Lab, a research centre analysing US policy. And one thing she has been studying is the tax position of many of the ultra-wealthy. Much of their wealth is in stocks, which aren’t taxed until they’re sold. This week we are going to ask, what is the best way of taxing the top 1 per cent?

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.