I. DON’T. KNOW.
Normally, when I don’t know about something, I try not to start a post about the subject. None of us knows everything about everything, and there is a reason why God invented the division of labor. Let people who know about how to do things do them.
But in this case, the REASONS why I don’t know whether Trump’s tariffs will help or hurt America are important, and I hope I can help clarify at least some of the reasons why people are lining up on different sides of the issue.
ARE TARIFFS GENERALLY GOOD ECONOMIC POLICY?
All other things being equal–not that they ever are–tariffs are terrible economic policy. In principle, putting tariffs on foreign goods throws sand into the gears of any economy because more trade is better than less, and all tariffs do ECONOMICALLY is add to the price of goods. Either consumers wind up buying less of what…
