Tariffs in a Fractured Feedback World: A Systems Analysis of U.S. Trade Policy in 2025
In a world of increasing systemic complexity, policymakers are tempted to grasp at intuitive but often misguided levers. Among the most misunderstood is the tariff. While it presents as a decisive tool—tangible, nationalistic, even patriotic—it is, in reality, a blunt instrument applied to a multi-loop dynamic system. The 2025 U.S. tariff strategy, when viewed through a systems lens, reveals feedback loops, time delays, unintended consequences, and deeply entrenched structural imbalances. What masquerades as national self-protection is often a redistribution of cost and risk across time, sectors, and scales.