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The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook: Tariff Special, with Helen Thompson

Politics &
Economics

Make sense of the seismic shifts we are witnessing in the global economy and how they will impact us here in the UK

In partnership with

‘The world as we knew it is gone’
– UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s response to Trump’s tariffs

President Donald Trump recently announced a 90-day pause for his monumental ‘liberation day’ tariffs while at the same time escalating a dangerous trade war with China.

Trump’s announcement came just weeks after import taxes on all goods entering the US were introduced, in the biggest upheaval of international trade in decades. And beyond the chaos and endless news cycle of the last few days, Trump’s key advisers are introducing a broader set of fringe economic ideas that they believe will transform politics and economics at home, as well as the foundations of US power abroad.  

In May 2025, Helen Thompson, expert on the long history of globalisation and author of the acclaimed book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century came to Intelligence Squared to make sense of the seismic shifts we are witnessing in the global economy and how they will impact us here in the UK.  

She was joined on stage by BBC broadcaster Jonny Dymond for this event in our Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook series in partnership with Guinness Global Investors.

Speakers for the motion

  • Helen Thompson

    Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century

Chair

  • Jonny Dymond

    BBC News journalist, who presents across Radio 4 and World Service Radio, including Today and The World at One

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Helen Thompson

Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century

Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century. Her research focuses on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century. She is a columnist for the New Statesman, and hosts These Times, an UnHerd podcast.  
Chair

Jonny Dymond

BBC News journalist, who presents across Radio 4 and World Service Radio, including Today and The World at One

Presenter of BBC Radio 4's The World at One and The World This Weekend and BBC World Service Radio's World Questions. He recently presented the BBC Radio 4 series Putin, in which told the story of Vladimir Putin's life by interviewing guests who have watched, studied and dealt with the Russian president.