Times of India: "We'll all be poorer with Donald Trump's tariffs — but he can't halt clean energy"
Interview with Srijana Mitra Das
Donald Trump has called the Indian economy ‘dead’ — how do you analyse that?
I take Donald Trump’s comment about India being a ‘dead economy’ about as seriously as anything else he says — the 50% tariffs on India and Brazil are now his latest instance of economic arson. Nobody even knows how long these tariffs will last, how high they’ll be in a month, who will get exemptions or why. The tragedy is, Trump holds real power to damage the US — and the global — economy.
What are the key economic implications of Donald Trump’s tariffs for America — and the world?
The main implication is higher inflation — we will all be poorer for them. ‘Price up, quantity demanded down’ is a steadfast economic principle. It applies here too. Of course, there are complexities — are there ever smart tariffs, for instance? The answer can be ‘Yes’ in, say, a climate context with carbon tariffs like the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). These are the kind of tariffs which even writers of The Economist can get behind because they help level the playing field for a policy that is a step in the right direction, internalising negative externalities and ensuring the market functions better.
Full interview: "We'll all be poorer with Donald Trump's tariffs — but he can't halt clean energy" by Srijana Mitra Das, The Times of India (10 August 2025).
