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To hear leftists tell it, the sky is falling again. But no matter what Donald Trump did, for them the sky would be falling.
After a long period of low-to-nonexistent tariffs on goods coming into America from foreign countries and high tariffs on American goods going elsewhere, President Trump is trying to reverse the imbalance. Leftists are, of course, screaming that the president is driving the country straight over a cliff into poverty and ruin, but the fact must be borne in mind that if he had lowered tariffs to levels below what they were when he took office, they would be touting the benefits of high tariffs. What they don’t want you to know, of course, is that throughout American history, tariffs have been an engine of prosperity.
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Mari Forever says
It’s always terrible to hear the crap leftists and liberals say about Trump. I am so glad that he is well supported by JD Vance, Elon Musk and all those appointed to set straight the nonsense the liberals have done, cheating and stealing. The deep swamp I hope will no longer exist.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Tariffs are one thing on which I disagreed w/ the Old GOP – the party of Reagan, Bushes, Newt, Romney, McConnell. In 1990 or so, I read both of Lee Iacocca’s books, and in 1992, I followed Ross Perot’s campaign and completely agreed w/ him. In fact, the one thing I would agree w/ Dems on, even though I disagreed on everything else, was tariffs. I would occasionally watch C-SPAN back in the day, and the Dems – not just Dick Gephardt but also others in his caucus – would make perfect sense when they’d point out how hollowed out the country was getting b’cos of companies moving their manufacturing operations overseas. GOP congressmen, by contrast, sounded like dinosaurs, just spitting out the old lines about “free trade” I wasn’t aware of Pelosi’s speech in 1996 arguing for tariffs, but she made perfect sense at the time, before she was bought off by Silicon Valley who has essentially offshored everything to China and other Asian countries
Today, it’s amazing how much of the Right has embraced Trump, and abandoned the Chamber of Commerce crowd, the Neil Cavutos, the Charlie Gasparinos and their ilk. In the meantime, the Dems have suddenly switched and oppose tariffs, since buying cheap stuff is all that matters to them. Last week, when the Senate passed a bill blocking the blacklisting of the EU, there were 4 Republicans who switched and voted for it – McConnell, Rand Paul, Collins and Murkowski, but no Dems who went the other way. The Congressional GOP still has too many of those old guard Chamber of Commerce types for whom zero tariffs is still a mantra
My only criticism – although I know it’s a part of the negotiating ploy – is the fast changes in decisions – one day tariffs, another day tariffs suspended, Liberation day, the entire chart listed, then yesterday, all countries that didn’t retaliate having their tariffs suspended, and so on. I know he’s doing things for the long term, but the markets can’t take that uncertainty. They can take the news that tariffs are going up and plan for it, they can take the news that there will be no tariffs and plan for that, but this back & forth everyday makes it impossible for companies to do their forecasts and execution plans
I’d much prefer if he announces tariffs this year on everyone he did, like on Liberation day, and say that it can be revisited in 6 months to a year. That gives the trade negotiators enough time to come up w/ win-win agreements w/ all 100+ countries there are, and once they are made, those tariffs get re-adjusted and the markets can respond accordingly
Also, I support a minimum 10% tariff on every country, no matter what
Taffy says
Tariffs can be either disastrous or very beneficial. For example, in 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Ac was passed to keep the USout of a recession. Instead, it plunged us deep into the depression. On the other hand, Trump’s tariffs are likely to achieve their stated purpose, and they will bolster the US economy.
With respect to the Trump tarries, the Left shows a basic lack of understanding of economics beyond economics 102 and economics 102. The issue is all based on stability points. If you start out with a strong economy andimpose tariffs, initially there will be a shock driving things in a negative direction, but in A year or so, things will rebound VERY Strongly. On the other hand, if you are going into a recession and impose tariffs, youwill also have a big negative shock to the economy. But, in the latter case, the economy cannot withstand such a shock, and it will not recover, such as we saw in the great depression with The Smoot-Harley Act.
Also, Trump’s tariffs are not intended to be permanent, but rather A negotiating tool for other countries to remove their Protectionist tariff impediment to US goods. I believe that Trump is Basing his actions on the fact that we can weather the negative effects of tariffs better than other countries’ economies, and thereby force them to remove impediments to the sale of US produced goods there. Once that happens, the United States will in all likelihood remove Protectionist Tariffsto foreign goods.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I was listening to Victor Davis Hansen today. Smoot-Hawley was not the reason the US went into a depression. Reason was that in the stock market, there was plenty of margin trading going on, and anybody who knows how that works, one is double-dinged when one’s holdings go down. Too many people in the stock markets then went through that, and that’s what brought about the depression
Also, before 1913, we had no income tax: tariffs were the way the government raised money. The proposal to go back to that, and abolish income, sales, property taxes is definitely worth considering. If that is done, then the tariffs cannot and should not be brought down to zero: they should be pegged at 10%. If you look at last Monday’s announcement, even countries w/ which we have a surplus, such as Australia – we have a 10% tariff. That’s what the floor should be
If tariffs were such horrible things for national economies, why do almost all countries have them? They are needed for, yes protectionist, reasons – to prevent their countries from getting hollowed out in the same way we have been over the past 50 years
Rarely says
There are certainly areas where tariffs are fully justified and necessary. However, the imposition should be done with a scalpel and not a battle axe. Just because a country has a trade surplus with the US doesn’t mean something is wrong. The only thing wrong about this is the way Trump is handling this. The tariffs being imposed are anything but tit-for-tat.
The “boys being boys” dispute between Peter Navarro and Elon Musk illustrates a schism among Trump’s closest advisors and is most telling.
Westman says
We have observed economists with half-century experience make failing predictions. There were no experts on the results of the massive Trump tariffs since being an expert would require past experience with massive tariffs. Everything was a projection of theory and fear and when its over, the results will require modifications to previous expectations and theory.
Just looking at the DOW, it looks like a natural oscillation to a step-function. At first a quickly-growing ringing followed by a slower dampening, converging on a value that is likely lower than before the step but much higher than the lowest ring. Strictly a ->GUESS<- based on elastic systems.