Isabel Hardy, a fourth-year economics major and president of Women in Economics at UGA, sees her knowledge of economics as a way to move through the world.
Q: Has learning about economics throughout college changed your perspective on global issues?
A: Yeah. Economics is great because it’s a frame of thinking. Before, I knew where my money was going, but I didn’t know entirely where it was going. Of course, you can learn that in finance, but in economics, you learn about how the economy works and how you move in it. You know, what does it mean when Donald Trump goes on and says, “Hey, I’m gonna increase tariffs.” Why are some people upset about it? Why are some people happy about it? Why are people’s bonuses being removed because of this? Why is Canada proposing counter tariffs? Why did they put a pause on those counter tariffs? Because I understand the economy, I can make smarter decisions.
Q: How do you think changes to U.S. economic policy, such as increased tariffs, are going to impact us on a local scale?
A: Tariffs have always been a little complicated. You know, the conceit of an economist is that they know how the world works, but also there’s this, oh, everybody knows how tariffs work, but it’s kind of convoluted. Tariffs are meant to protect emerging businesses, but the thing is, tariffs don’t always do that, especially when they’re placed on the wrong markets. I will say this, some of my economics professors are not very happy with Trump’s plan. I think it’s forecasted that it’s actually gonna increase inflation a bit. Ultimately, tariffs are considered a type of externality that isn’t super efficient unless it’s to protect certain markets, and it does harm consumers sometimes.
Q: On a global scale, what do you think the impact is going to be?
A: We’re gonna see counter tariffs from Canada and Mexico, which is very interesting because those are our friends in trade. And, this is getting a little political: I don’t think it’s a really good view for America, especially when we’re taught here that economic efficiency is free trade. I’m not saying tariffs are bad, though; it can be very good for emerging markets, but sometimes it’s not efficient.
Q: What do you think could be done about the rising cost of living?
A: It’s interesting because purchasing power has decreased, right? Especially with COVID, the Fed was going crazy when it came to adjusting nominal and real interest rates. They were trying their best, really. It’s just, we can’t rely on economic indicators that we did in the past. What can we do to fix it? That’s a really tough question because you would say increase the minimum wage, but if you increase minimum wage, then you have risk of unemployment and cutting back your staff. But we do need to increase wages because our purchasing power is decreasing faster than wages are increasing. So, that’s not good. Yeah, cost of living is pretty high, but we are economically strong, which is a good thing. People think the economy is pretty bad. I feel like people have a very negative perspective. We’re doing good with inflation, actually, compared to COVID.
Comments trimmed for length and clarity.
Maura Potvin is a journalism major covering the business and consumer news beat.
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