Amna Nawaz:
And joining us now to discuss all of this is Simon Johnson. He’s a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Also with us is Douglas Irwin, an economist at Dartmouth College and the author of “Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy.”
Gentlemen, welcome to you both.
And, Simon, I want to begin with you. Just your reaction to the president’s decision to pause most of those tariffs for 90 days. What do you make of it and also why he did it?
Simon Johnson, MIT Sloan School of Management: Well, it’s a remarkable climb down, Amna, really.
I think the last week has been chaotic around the world, a lot of alarm, a lot of dismay across the American business sector. It really felt like a strategy that had no point, no coherence. It was very badly communicated.
So I think it’s a big sense of relief for me personally and for pretty much everyone in the country and around the world that we have come to a slightly better, clearer place.