"Tariffs: Theory. Practice. Politics"
A Zoom Conversation with Economics Professor Susan Helper '79 Case Western Reserve University
What’s the “truth” about tariffs? What are tariffs and who pays? What does history tell us about their utility? Can tariffs be productive for a country or are they ruinous by nature? Are the Trump Administration’s tariff policies likely to invigorate domestic industrial product and what do these policies portend for the global economic system? Join Susan Helper for a timely conversation in which she will share her perspective as an academician and a former U.S. government official who has witnessed how trade treaties are negotiated and implemented.
Susan Helper ’79 is the Frank Tracy Carlton Professor of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She has served as chair of the Economics Department and has been a visiting scholar at University of Oxford, the University of California, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the globalization of supply chains, and on how U.S. manufacturing might be revitalized. In the Biden Administration, Susan served as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and later served as Senior Advisor for Industrial Strategy at the White House Office of Management and Budget. During the Obama Administration, she was a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and later was the Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce. Susan earned her PhD in Economics from Harvard and her BA from Oberlin in Economics, Government and Spanish.
