Tyler Schipper, associate professor of economics in the University of St. Thomas College of Arts and Sciences, shared insights with OSV News on how U.S. tariff policy intersects with Catholic social teaching. Drawing on recent Supreme Court deliberations and the Church’s emphasis on justice for the poor, Schipper reflected on the moral dimensions of economic policy and its real-world impact on struggling families.
From the article:
As the U.S. Supreme Court considered President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy, economists raised concerns about the potential impact of that policy on the poor.
In oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 5, justices across the ideological spectrum expressed skepticism of the Trump administration’s claim that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, granted the president unilateral power to impose sweeping tariffs on nearly every country around the globe, with some seemingly suggesting he exceeded his authority in imposing them. ...
Tyler Schipper, an associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, told OSV News that he was recently part of an interdisciplinary panel reflecting on Pope Leo XIV’s “Dilexi Te.”
“In the first paragraph he cites Luke (“he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty”) in a way that could be interpreted as a call for progressive taxation – and would likely be inconsistent with how tariffs are being applied today,” Schipper said.
Schipper argued that the problem with the across-the-board tariffs – such as the ones under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny – “is that they are regressive.” ...
