When Economists Wage War

02/28/25 • 29 min

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Diplomat and Author Edward Fishman reveals how globalization is giving way to zero-sum self-interest. Can we win the emerging economic warfare? Listen, and read his new book Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare.

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USAID and the Fate of Gazans

Peace in the Middle East starts in Gaza and the West Bank. But beautiful parks and fountains and casinos...the Riviera of the Middle East, a beautiful vacation spot in what is now rubble? And somehow the US would own it. But what about all those Gazans, walking home along a highway, carrying all of their belongings, some with donkeys, on their way back to rubble. Enter USAID. In asymmetric warfare nothing, absolutely nothing, can defeat hearts and minds, and no one can impact those more effectively than USAID, at a minute financial cost. And this is how you neutralize the seduction of bad actors.

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Tariff Wars

Tony Wayne, former Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs and US Ambassador to Mexico, pulls apart the strands. First, what is an import? How many times would you guess a raw material or auto part crosses a Canadian or Mexican border in the process of making and assembling a car? 4? 5? Each crossing carries a 25% tariff. That’s a lot of crossings! And a whole lot of tariffs! And the point? To make our neighbors tougher on smuggling into the US things we don’t want such as fentanyl. But the drug trade runs two ways, depending largely on American-made guns that cross into Mexico. All three countries must work together or everyone loses. And what’s this about an external revenue service?