Econ 101 and Tariffs
Dude, where's my consumer surplus?!
Made this video back in November for friends and family (Thanksgiving was coming and I had explained the concepts post-election a few times already). Target audience is new students of economics, and anyone with a general layman’s interest. Goes over the basics of supply/demand, reviews the required reading concepts of consumer and producer surplus, and then goes into tariffs. No math. Just discussion and graphs showing the Econ 101 diagrams of the effiencies and well-being lost to tariffs.
Again, I made this back in November. The economic assault launched on the world on so-called “Liberation Day” will require a whole new chapter to even begin wrapping our heads around the economic madness and destruction the Trump administration just launched on ourselves and the world.
Admittedly slow by modern standards. Key timestamps below to skip around.
00:00 Intro
01:05 Basic Supply and Demand
06:15 Producer and Consumer Surplus
07:20 Consumer Surplus
08:20 Producer Surplus
09:30 Adding Trade - Open Economy Equilibrium
11:40 Producer and Consumer Surplus in an Open Economy
13:48 President Larry Making T-Shirts Great
14:50 President Larry Sets Tariffs
17:45 Producer and Consumer Surplus after Tariffs
19:32 Dude, Where's My Consumer Surplus?
21:02 Tariff Revenue and Lost Efficiencies
23:30 Why? Why? Why?!
25:00 It's even worse than all this