As new tariffs, rising protectionism, and escalating trade disputes dominate headlines, one thing becomes clear: understanding economics is no longer optional — it is essential. Whether it is electric vehicle tariffs between China and the U.S., escalating trade disputes between the U.S. and the EU or inflation triggered by global supply chain shocks, today’s biggest stories all come with rippling economic consequences that deeply penetrate our daily lives. Yet, sizeable segments of the population — including students, voters, and policymakers — do not fully understand what those consequences are.

According to the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress — a national test most Americans know of as “the nation’s report card” — more than half of American 12th graders lack proficiency in economics. Performance has remained stagnant since 2006, when 58% of the test students did not qualify as proficient. And while the number of U.S. high school graduates who have never completed an economics course decreased from 53% in 1990, this figure still sits painfully high in recent years at 42%. To make matters worse, just 27 U.S. states and the District of Columbia mandate that high school students complete an economics course before graduating.

This is particularly disturbing as the U.S. remains a global economic engine and decisions made by its citizens—in the grocery store, the workplace, and the ballot alike—ripple outward. Those ripples are now turning into waves in a moment of escalating trade tensions — from new U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum to ongoing disputes over microchips, rare earth minerals and green tech overcapacity.

But low economic literacy levels are not just an American issue. According to the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the United States scores near the international average in economic literacy. While top-performing countries like Estonia and Finland significantly outperformed the U.S., globally, around one in five 15-year-olds in OECD countries cannot demonstrate even basic economic knowledge. In other words, what we are looking at here is educational failure at the global level.

Tariff hikes, retaliatory measures, and supply chain disruptions all come with economic trade-offs. But what happens when the public does not understand the economic policies their government is implementing or how those policies affect prices, employment, and global cooperation? Take, for example, Andrew Yang’s Universal Basic Income proposal during the 2020 U.S. presidential primaries — $1,000 per month to every adult, no strings attached. The idea was widely celebrated, yet few seemed to ask whether it was affordable, inflationary, or how it might affect incentives to work. Similarly, rent control policies continue to attract support in major cities worldwide despite a strong economic consensus that they reduce housing supply and distort markets. These ideas persist not necessarily because they are sound but because many people are not taught to think in terms of opportunity cost, incentives, or long-term trade-offs.

Surveys show that 85% of US high schoolers are interested in learning about economic topics, yet less than 19% get this knowledge from school resources. Even when economics is offered in U.S. schools, however, the course is often limited to basic personal finance — budgeting, credit, paychecks, insurance — without deeper exposure to economic theory, markets, or international trade. Only 11% of U.S. students report feeling well-prepared to make financial decisions. Yet again, even education systems that appear to perform well on paper still face major gaps. Right next door, Dubai’s private school students ranked second globally in financial literacy in the latest PISA results — a remarkable headline achievement. But scratch beneath the surface, and the picture becomes less reassuring. Among students surveyed, only 47% reported learning money management as part of their school curriculum. The majority said they learned it outside of school. While 82% felt confident about handling money, just 27% had a bank account, and only 32% had access to a credit or debit card, suggesting limited real-world engagement.

The conclusion is sobering. In low and high-performing regions alike, many students graduate without meaningful, practical exposure to economic and financial decision-making. All of this contributes to a global public that is more easily swayed by slogans than substance. When people do not understand how taxation, inflation, tariffs, or regulation really work, public discourse becomes vulnerable to emotional appeals and short-term thinking.

If we want to be prepared for the real world, a basic level of economic knowledge needs to be part of our toolkit — not just for future bankers or policymakers, but for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our daily lives. Economics is not just about markets and money; it is about the ability to evaluate claims, weigh trade-offs, and think critically about the systems we live in. When we overlook it, we limit our capacity to make sense of the decisions shaping our future. But when we engage with it, we empower ourselves — to navigate complexity with confidence, recognize hollow rhetoric, and challenge policies that promise much but deliver little.

Economic decisions affect everything from housing to healthcare, trade policy, and climate action. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of the economy. And if schools and universities do not teach us how it works, we must take that learning into our own hands. The tools are out there — it is time we start using them.