Post Tagged 'tariffs'

February 21, 2025

The Tattered History of Tariffs

Much like bell-bottom jeans, tariffs are making a comeback. President Trump imposed tariffs on about $380 billion in products in his first term. The Biden administration kept most of those tariffs, then expanded them for China-made goods, including computer chips, steel, and aluminum—and quadrupled tariffs, from 25% to 100%, on electric vehicles(EVs). Continue Reading...

August 30, 2024

Toasters and Trade: How Misguided Policies Could Burn the American Dream

This weekend, Americans will celebrate Labor Day and the unofficial close of summer with barbecues, parades, and a few extra lazy days before the onset of fall. This year happens to mark the 130th official Labor Day holiday, signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894. Continue Reading...

October 23, 2020

Fact check: the second presidential debate of 2020

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off for their second and last debate of the 2020 campaign season on Thursday night at Belmont University in Nashville. The candidates offered viewers a far more staid and substantive exchange than their first debate – a low bar, to be sure. Continue Reading...

December 16, 2019

What Churchill knew about tariffs could fill a bucket

Winston Churchill, like Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, has been the putative source of many a pseudonymous or misattributed quotation. However, one of his best-known aphorisms about taxes is authentic – but misunderstood. Continue Reading...

May 22, 2019

Rev. Ben Johnson on ‘Donald Trump’s one-front trade war’

In the U.S. edition of The Spectator, Rev. Ben Johnson looks at how President Donald J. Trump eased tariffs on North American and European trade partners so he could ratchet up pressure on China. Continue Reading...

February 13, 2019

Are tariffs the best tool to solve economic and social problems of globalization?

President Trump said in a press conference Tuesday that he may postpone the March 1st deadline for the extension of tariffs on Chinese goods as US trade representatives are in China working on a trade agreement. Continue Reading...

June 26, 2018

It’s official: the United States has entered a trade war

What do soybeans and washing machines have in common? One is grown in the United States, and the other produced in China, but both are affected by the recent clash on trade. Continue Reading...

June 04, 2018

6 facts about the brewing U.S.-EU trade war

Late last week, President Donald Trump announced he would impose steel and aluminum tariffs against U.S. allies across the transatlantic sphere. Here are the facts you need to know: President Trump applied a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum against the European Union, as well as NAFTA trade partners Canada and Mexico. Continue Reading...

July 13, 2016

Protectionism leads to turmoil, strife, and disorder

Proponents of protectionism often ground their support in a quasi-nationalism; trade should be restricted for the benefit of the nation. Economically, the argument holds little weight. The benefits of more trade, like more and cheaper goods, outweigh the costs, like some temporary unemployment that results from the closing of a factory that couldn’t compete with foreign companies. Continue Reading...

June 30, 2016

The immorality of tariffs

The benefits of free trade are vast, and enjoyed throughout the world. The alternative — trade restricted by protective tariffs and quotas — concentrates benefits to a protected few who profit due to less competition from foreign competitors. Continue Reading...

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