Phillip Magness

When the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative unveiled its now-infamous "Liberation Day" tariff formula in April 2025, economists quickly noticed that something was not right. At first glance, the formula looked impressive. It had Greek symbols, academic citations, and all the trappings of serious economic analysis. But once economists began examining it, the sophistication quickly fell away.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is widely known as a reputable and accessible compendium of articles on complex scholarly subjects, offered free of charge to the public since 1995. Think of it as Wikipedia for philosophy, but with authors who are known experts in their subjects and peer review to maintain quality control. That quality control broke down last week when the SEP published a new entry for "capitalism," its first-ever foray into the subject.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 did not generate much revenue for the federal government or succeed at protecting American producers from foreign competition. Instead, it sank the United States deeper into the Great Depression and has long been effectively superseded by legislation that shifted the focus of trade policymaking into international agreements.