Economic nationalists are claiming the deal endangers "national security" to convince Americans that a good deal for investors, employees, and the U.S. economy will somehow make America less secure. That's nonsense.
Support for industrial policy and protectionism are supposed to help the working class. Instead, these ideas elevate the already privileged.
The debate is over. Trump's steel tariffs failed.
The U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously to reject a nakedly protectionist proposal that would have made canned goods more expensive.
Plus: A listener asks if it should become the norm for all news outlets to require journalists to disclose their voting records.
Regulations, tariffs, and other government-imposed hurdles reward American car companies for building bigger, more expensive trucks and keep out any potential competitors.
Should there be any limits to a president's power to centrally plan the economy? Apparently not.
That's bad news for Americans.
Tariffs of 25 percent introduced under Donald Trump have been allowed to remain in place, and Biden may tack on even more to shield American firms from competition.
There's no good reason for the government to block Americans' access to cheaper tin cans.
Another round of federal intervention to prevent its sale makes no sense.
The rules would allow the government to temporarily ease restrictions on WIC formula purchases during a shortage. But those restrictions shouldn't exist in the first place.
At nearly every turn, the infrastructure package opted for policies that limited supplies, hiked prices, added paperwork, and grew government.
More than five years after it began, former President Donald Trump's trade war is still spiraling out of control.
Tariffs and sugar subsidies have propped up overvalued land needed to fix the environmental damage.
A new report from the GAO highlights how America's system of sugar subsidies and tariffs costs consumers about $3.5 billion every year.
With a second term, the former president promised to end California's water shortage, clear homeless encampments, and conduct the biggest deportation operation in American history.
Removing high tariffs from foreign imports of baby formula would ease the supply shock of possible factory closures.
Deena Ghazarian, CEO of consumer electronic company Austere, says the federal government's tariff exclusion process was "arcane, nontransparent, and highly uncertain."
Rather than posing a national security threat, the growth of China's E.V. industry is an opportunity for global innovation.
Season 1, Episode 6 Podcasts
"There's nobody that says, wait, is this good for America? Is this good for the American consumer?"
Donald Trump's latest argument for protectionism is undermined by the realities of his own trade policies.
Season 1, Episode 5 Podcasts
"It's not easy to make one of these rules, but it's a thousand times harder to get rid of one."
Instead, Donald Trump is proposing a 10-percent automatic tariff on all imports, a trade policy even worse than Biden's.
The "Tariff Man" promises to strike again.
Panic over China's rapid economic growth has fueled all manner of big-government proposals. They're looking even more foolish now.
The host of Why We Can't Have Nice Things explains how indefensible tariffs cause baby formula shortages, screw Hawaii residents, and increase traffic in the Northeast.
Season 1, Episode 2 Free Trade
The U.S. tariff code is "quite regressive and somewhat misogynist" because the most powerful lobbyist in Washington is muscle memory.
Season 1, Episode 1 Podcasts
A combination of "absurdly high" federal tariffs and excessive FDA regulations created the conditions for a crisis.
"Government in general does a lot of things that aren't necessary," says Jared Polis.
Season 1 Free Trade
A six-part podcast series on trade policy launching next week
It's a short-sighted approach that distracts us from the more important question.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission are considering a petition that would impose tariffs of up to 300 percent on tinplate steel.
It's a familiar program. And it will result in higher prices, slower growth, and fewer jobs.
China and the U.S. are locked in a mutually destructive economic conflict.
Many politicians offer a simplified view of the world—one in which government interventions are all benefits and no costs. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Economists Gene Epstein and David Friedman debated how best to persuade people to become libertarians at the Porcupine Freedom Festival.
The legislation—which was introduced in response to the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio—pushes pet projects and would worsen the status quo.
If the FTC wants to know why there's such a notable lack of competition within America's baby formula market, it ought to ask other parts of the federal bureaucracy.
Hawley might call them "tariffs on China," but that's obvious nonsense: Tariffs are paid by Americans.
The ideology champions the same tired policies that big government types predictably propose whenever they see something they don't like.
"If there is freedom, private property, rule of law, then Latin Americans thrive," says the social media star.
The House passed a resolution that will reimpose tariffs on solar panels from China, while the EPA sits on applications for carbon capture technology that may soon be mandatory.
Annual inflation fell to 5 percent in March, the lowest mark in two years.
Excessive government interference in the market hurts consumers and thwarts policy goals. It also gets in the way of the government itself.
It would result in shortages, decreases in productivity, and higher production costs affecting millions of American workers and nearly every consumer.
American companies and consumers "bore nearly the full cost of these tariffs because import prices increased at the same rate as the tariffs."
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