logo
episode-header-image
Jul 29
1h 2m

Editor’s Pick: How Economic Warfare Impa...

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
About this episode

Six months in, President Trump’s trade war has entered a new phase. Just this weekend, the European Union agreed to a trade deal that includes a promise to buy $750 billion worth of American energy products over the next three years. And this week, with the August 1 tariff deadline looming, the US and China have restarted negotiations.

Trump has been using tools of economic warfare since his first term. And the Biden administration embraced policies such as steep tariffs on electric vehicle imports from China, and levying sanctions against Russia aimed at stifling its energy sector. 

These economic chokepoints are part of a broader shift of the global economy. Countries are weaponizing economic power through sanctions, tariffs, and export controls — tools that were designed before the complex geopolitical competition we see today. 

So how did we get here? What does this new age of economic warfare mean for global stability and the global economy? And how might these tools reshape everything from energy markets to global banking systems in the years ahead?

This week, we’re revisiting a conversation Jason Bordoff had with Eddie Fishman about his book "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare," which came out in February. The book traces the evolution of economic warfare from the “War on Terror” to today's great power competition.

Eddie is a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy and an adjunct professor at Columbia University SIPA. He also serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Additional support from Martina Chow and Richard Nephew. This episode was engineered by Sean Marquand and Gregory Vilfranc.

Note: This episode is a re-run. It was originally published on February 11, 2025.

Up next
Oct 7
Building a New Energy Industrial Strategy
Industrial policy, supply chain security, and economic competitiveness are central to how we think about clean energy deployment. As the Trump administration pulls back federal support for the clean energy transition, there are more and more calls for pragmatism and realism. The ... Show More
55m 44s
Sep 30
Is Permitting Reform About to Break Through?
Last year, an energy permitting reform bill sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso passed out of committee but failed to gain full support in the US Senate. Since then, rising energy costs and infrastructure backlogs have only heightened pressure on Congress to take ... Show More
53m 24s
Sep 23
US Energy Policy in a Partisan Era
Following the rollback of key climate provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, the debate over America's energy future is increasingly contentious. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has eliminated, or at least cobbled, many of the clean energy incentives that were ... Show More
59m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2025
George Friedman on How Geopolitics Drives Trump's Tariffs
It has been a tumultuous couple of weeks since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariffs, pushing the world's two biggest economies, the United States and China, into an ever-escalating trade war. The radical shifts taken by the administration have us at GPF wond ... Show More
38m 30s
May 2025
Is the clean energy economy doomed?
So far, President Trump’s “drill, baby, drill,” agenda has proven to be a sharp turn from Biden-era climate initiatives, including the landmark spending bill the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). And thanks to President Trump’s attempts to claw back control over IRA funds, as well a ... Show More
24m 8s
Dec 2024
S3E3: Election Impact and Economic Forces Affecting Supply Chains with Marianne Wanamaker
For our December episode, co-hosts Ted Stank and Tom Goldsby spoke with Marianne Wanamaker, dean of UT's Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs and a professor of economics and public policy.  Wanamaker, who served as the chief domestic economist for ... Show More
35m 47s
Apr 2025
Trump Tariffs: Everything You Need to Know
This is a special edition of the Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition podcast.      Subscribe to the show:      on Apple: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN      on Spotify: http://bit.ly/3jGRYiB      Anywhere: http://bit.ly/3J1bct9 On today's episode:      President Donald Trump imposed the steepe ... Show More
21m 40s
Sep 11
The World That Tariffs Will Make
Donald Trump has been railing against the global economic order from the start of his political career. But in his second term as president, he has turned that critique into blistering action. In just five months, the trade war that started with his April tariffs has completely r ... Show More
52m 1s
Mar 2025
Trump: Economy In ‘Transition', Mark Carney Wins & Germany's Identity Crisis
Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast: (1) President Donald Trump said the US economy faces “a period of transition,” deflecting concerns about the risks of a slowdown as his early focus on tariffs and federal job cuts causes mar ... Show More
16m 41s
Dec 2024
Bye-Bye, What Americans Buy - Ep 995
Peter Schiff discusses Black Friday's origin, American consumerism, the nation's heavy reliance on imports, and Trump's economic policies. This episode is sponsored by:OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code GOLD at https://oneskin.coLucy: Go to https://lucy.co/gol ... Show More
57m 54s
May 2025
What does China want from the US? With Jay Shambaugh
The tit-for-tat tariff escalations between the US and China are on pause, at least temporarily. But if the world’s two biggest economies don’t make progress by July, they could return with a vengeance. How can the two parties make progress? And what does China actually want from ... Show More
30m 28s
Aug 3
Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs
Today on the show, President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs go into effect this week. Fareed speaks with Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, and Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of the conservative think-tank American Compass, about what this trade war ... Show More
41m 52s
Apr 2025
Trump Considers Slashing China Tariffs
P.M. Edition for April 23. We exclusively report that President Trump is considering cutting steep tariffs on Chinese imports, a move that could de-escalate the trade war. WSJ chief China correspondent Lingling Wei tells us what that means for the broader relationship between the ... Show More
13m 30s