Tariffs 101: Trade, Taxes and Revenues in U.S. History

Everyone's talking about tariffs . . . but do we really know what they are, how they work, what their purpose is?Scott and Bob give backgrounder on tariffs from a historical perspective (we're not economists) and discuss the reason they are used in global economic relationships and describe some of the reasons that American founders advocated for them (hint, it's not about revenues--it's for capitalist development of industry). We also discuss the political meaning of the tariff--they're part of a dispute over trade policy between northern manufacturing and southern agriculture (the so-called Tariff of Abominations) from the early 19th century through the McKinley Tariff years. Then we described the advent of the Free Trade era and how tariffs became less important (a federal income tax replaced tariffs as a main source of revenue as the U.S. grew into an economic power--tariff revenues weren't adequate for the needs of a growing imperial power by the early 20th century--and how that began to shift after World War II. And we finished up by briefly discussing how ill-developed and damaging Trump's tariffs will be.------------------------------Outro- "He’s A Heartache" by Janie Fricke Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/3a6AX7Qy)+Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.

In our latest, Scott talks with organizer and troublemaker Patrick Young about this past weekend’s Hands Off rallies and the state of the resistance to Trump and Musk.Bio//Patrick Young is an organizer based in Washington D.C. He’s worked in labor, climate and direct action movements for two decades. He is a co-founder of Shutdown DC and the Movement Infrastructure Project. ------------------------------Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by MoodyLinks//+ Shutdown DC: https://www.shutdowndc.org+ Movement Infrastructure Project: https://www.movementinfrastructureproject.org Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/3a6AX7Qy)+Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Scott.

In our latest, Scott talks with journalist, and friend of G&R, Adam Federman (@adamfederman) about Trump's obsession to acquire Greenland. They discuss what's at stake, the region's Cold War history, how the local population views the U.S. and Trump, great power tensions around the Arctic Circle and the wealthy private interests trying to claim their stakes in Greenland. Bio//Adam Federman is a reporting fellow with Type Investigations who has written widely on environmental policy, public lands, and corporate and police spying on environmental activists. He has written for In These Times, Politico Magazine, The Washington Post, Wired, Slate, The Nation, and other publications. His first book, Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray, was a New York Times notable book of 2017 and a finalist for the LA Times Book prize in biography.--------------------------------------Outro- "Greenland Whale Fisheries (Why we Sail)" by Glen FinnanLinks//+ Adam Federman: https://adamfederman.com/ + Trump's Greenland Problem (https://bit.ly/42jBor6)+ The New Cold War in the Arctic (https://bit.ly/4lf2Grv)Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/3a6AX7Qy)+Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.

“Tell ya the truth, I don't think this is a brains kind of operation.”-Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) in the Way of the GunBob and Scott dive into the news of the week. Starting with Signalgate and the utter incompetence, yet remains vile and murderous, in the Trump national security team. And then getting into the escalating repression by the administration on non-citizens that have engaged in anti-genocide organizing. We also discuss Trump rolling back bargaining rights for millions of federal workers. We close with a tribute to the late media activist and scholar Robert McChesney who passed away last week. ------------------------------------Outro- "Love's Gonna Live Here" by Daniel DonatoLinks//+ G&R: State Repression is as American as Cherry Pie (https://bit.ly/3RizqSE)+ G&R: Journalist Will Potter on Big Oil’s Attempt to Bankrupt Greenpeace (https://bit.ly/42aJ9jk)Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/E39FTD62) +Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Scott

Will Potter, author of *Green is the New Red* and one of the best-known observers and analysts of the way the state uses contrived charges of "terrorism" to attack environmental activists, joined me for a great discussion about the recent North Dakota court case where Energy Transfer Partners sued Greenpeace and won a huge settlement. We talked at length about the ways in which the oil companies and the state have criminalized free speech and allowed the oligarchs to intimidate and destroy activist groups. We also discussed the current repression--the attacks on migrants, students, anti-Tesla activists, etc--and the new level of risks we're facing.bio//Will Potter is a thought leader and award-winning investigative journalist and author whose work has focused on social justice movements and attacks on civil rights post-9/11. He has been invited to speak about human rights and political repression before governmental bodies including the U.S. Congress, the Australian Parliament, and the Council of Europe. He was the first investigative journalist to be named a TED Senior Fellow, and his TED talks on anti-protest laws and secret prisons have been viewed nearly 10 million times. His book, Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, exposed the targeting of nonviolent protest groups by the FBI and was awarded a Kirkus Star for "remarkable merit." Will was awarded the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Law Reporting, and is the inaugural civil rights fellow and distinguished journalist-in-residence at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. His new book, Little Red Barns: Hiding the truth from farm to fable, is now available for pre-order-----------------------------------------------Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by MoodyLinks+ Will's website: https://www.willpotter.com/+ Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable (https://bit.ly/40HiYRq)Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/E39FTD62) +Follow us on Substack (https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Jack.

Strategic Litigation on Public Participation, or SLAPPs, is an oft-used tactics by power holders against activists, campaigners, journalists and ordinary citizens seeking to stop destructive corporate practices on people and planet. There are a number of high profile SLAPP suits in the courts now.In our latest, we talk with Evan Mascagni with the Public Participation Project about the history and use of SLAPP suits.Bio//Evan Mascagni is the Policy Director of the Public Participation Project, a nonprofit dedicated to combating Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) through state and federal anti-SLAPP legislation. A former attorney turned documentary filmmaker and First Amendment rights advocate, Evan is committed to defending the free speech rights of filmmakers, journalists, and activists nationwide. -----------------------------------------------Outro- "Lawyers, Guns and Money" by Los Alvarez Del Norte Links//+ Evan's website: https://www.evanmascagni.com/+Public Participation Project: https://anti-slapp.org/+ Protect the Protest: https://www.protecttheprotest.org/Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.

Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in Columbia’s student encampments last year, and a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested and detained by ICE agents for protest activities. Numbers of other Columbia students are being singled out by the Zionist groups, the Trump administration and the Columbia administration. Valerie Costa, an organizer of Takedown Tesla protests was attacked virtually by Elon Musk and then doxxed by his trolls. State repression of protesters is peaking at this political moment. But there is a long history of this in the U.S. In our latest, we look at the history of state repression. And talk about these current events. ———————Outro- "Exhuming McCarthy" by Handsome PantsLinks//+G&R: Trump's Favorite President? Who Was William McKinley? Tariffs, Empire, and a new Gilded Age (https://bit.ly/4icqSbD)+G&R: Taking Down Tesla w/ Valerie from the Troublemakers (https://bit.ly/41htNce)Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Scott.

Fady Joudah is an esteemed Palestinian Poet/Activist. And we had a great long conversation with him about poetry and resistance, conditions in Gaza, the difficulty of describing the Palestinian struggle in English, the failure of the west to defend Gaza, and much more. And we finished with Fady reading and deconstructing some of his poetry for us. Bio// Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. He was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia. He was educated at the University of Georgia, the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Texas Health Sciences in Houston. In 2002 and 2005 he worked with Doctors Without Borders in Zambia and Sudan, respectively.Joudah’s debut collection of poetry, The Earth in the Attic (2008), won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, chosen by Louise Glück. Joudah followed his second book of poetry, Alight (2013) with Textu (2014), a collection of poems written on a cell phone wherein each piece is exactly 160 characters long. His fourth collection is Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (2018). In 2014, Joudah was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. As critic Charles Bainbridge observed in a 2008 Guardian review of The Earth in the Attic, “Joudah’s poetry thrives on dramatic shifts in perspective, on continually challenging received notions.”Joudah translated several collections of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s work in The Butterfly’s Burden (2006), which won the Banipal prize from the UK and was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; and in If I Were Another, which won a PEN USA award in 2010. His translation of Ghassan Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me (2012) won the Griffin International Poetry Prize in 2013. His other translations include Amjad Nasser's Petra: The Concealed Rose and A Map of Signs and Scents.Joudah lives with his family in Houston, where he works as a physician of internal medicine.—————-Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by MoodyLinks//+ Fady Joudah: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fady-joudahFollow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.

Elon Musk is a dangerous oligarch running a hostile corporate takeover operation on the federal government via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In response, people around the world have mobilized to hurt him where it hurts… his pocketbook. In recent weeks, one of his companies, Tesla, had lost 25% in market share and been the target of widespread protests.In our latest, Scott talks with Valerie with the Troublemakers in Seattle about the viral protests against Elon and Tesla. ———Outro- "Trouble” by Christopher John Stephens Links// + Takedown Tesla: teslatakedown.com+ Troublemakers Community: www.troublemakerscommunity.orgFollow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Scott.

Project Censored has been exposing the media's self-censorship for a half-century now and we talked with its director Mickey Huff about the current state of the media. We discussed some of the bigger stories that the media has overlooked (climate change, Gaza, labor issues) but also importantly talked about important stories that were picked up and covered by alternative media. Bio//Mickey Huff is the third director of Project Censored (founded in 1976) and is the president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Huff joined Ithaca College in New York fall of 2024, where he now also serves as the Distinguished Director of the Park Center for Independent Media and Professor of Journalism. Since 2009, he has coedited the annual volume of the Censored book series with associate director Andy Lee Roth, published by Seven Stories Press in New York, and since 2021 with The Censored Press, the Project’s new publishing imprint. His most recent books include Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2025, co-edited with Shealeigh Voitl and Andy Lee Roth (The Censored Press/Seven Stories Press, 2024); The Media and Me: A Guide to Critical Media Literacy for Young People (co-authored with Project Censored and the Media Revolution Collective, The Censored Press/Triangle Square, 2022), as well as Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy (Routledge, 2022) and United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and what we can do about it), published by City Lights Books, 2019, both co-authored with Nolan Higdon.----------------------------------------------------Outro- "Sons of 1984" by Todd RungrenLinks//+ Project Censored: https://www.projectcensored.org/Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.