April 8, 2025 by Alan Reynolds of Liberty.
excerpt:
“In 1930 another stupidity of government intervention came. All the rest was meant to be the greatest creditor nation in the world, and tariffs were already too high and they raised the tariffs again.
“We raised tariffs. This is an attractive move around the world to raise tariffs and set up other trade barriers, including quotas, and quotas began. Protectionism ran wild in the world. Markets were cut off. Trade narrowed.
“The dangers of this measure were so well understood in the financial circles that, to the end, the New York Financial District held hope that President Hoover would reject the tariff bill. [sic: Anderson says January]15, it was announced that he would sign the bill. This was the news from the headline on Monday morning. The stock market fell 12 points on average that day by the New York Times, with industry beating nearly 20 points. The market was right, not the president. “
DRH Note: The 12-point drop was about 5%.
C. Bradley Thompson, The Redneck Intellectual, April 8, 2025.
excerpt:
One of him [Thompson’s] The great hope is that on April 20, 1968, the charismatic and charming Pierre Trudeau became the first elected prime minister, one day he will be freed from soft tyranny.
Canada was an individual free society in the decades before World War II. (By the way, the classic American writers of the early 20th century, Albert Jay Knock, Eleven wrote the locations of great essays around the world.)
DRH Comment: Brad is a fellow Kanak. I had the same impression of the old Trudeau he had. He did one good thing as Minister of Justice before becoming prime minister: legalized homosexuality. I didn’t know about Alberta, but that’s plausible. In 1969, when Trudeau was obtaining Medicare, Canada’s single-payer system, Alberta was the most resisting state.
Philip W. Magnes, Killett, April 9, 2025.
excerpt:
This confusion is the result of a battle of ideological battles within the White House. Trump has brought together a like-minded “customer men” economic team to enact his pollie, but his advisors are at odds with what they prefer to achieve. The chaotic implementation of the last two months reflects competing goals, including classic protectionism, revenue generation and a drastic scheme to devalue the dollar and “reset” the international economy. Forming a cohesive tariff agenda, Interada fights for the president’s ears and guides him on a path to conflict.
There is now an appearance in which there are around five different tariff camps within the Trump administration. Almost all of Trump’s “customer men” have come out of the rim of discipline as economics professions overwhelmingly reject tariffs. The perspective around Butse disagrees with each other as a brief investigation into the tariff landscape will revive.
and:
Nevertheless, Navarro’s burden of statistical contributions will nevertheless have a serious and negative impact on most America. Contrary to the classic protectionist claims, tariff costs are passed on to consumers – EISHER responds to taxes through price increases.
And far from a reversal of the trade deficit, this type of rate ultimately places self-destructive offenders on US exporters. First, exporters are in the global market price range and need to absorb the increased costs that will cause raw input materials due to tariffs. Second, tariffs tend to cause retaliatory trade wars overseas, which in other countries target punitive collectors, thereby cutting them off from international markets.
Adam N. Michel and Joshua Lucks, April 11, 2025, Cato of Liberty.
excerpt:
Lege Political Startives is permanent, and IRS data shows that the federal tax system is not only extremely progressive, but also growing over time. High-income earners pay a large percentage of federal government’s Inome Tax disputes and face the highest revenge tax across tax laws.
Top earners, who are already facing high tax rates, cannot cover the growing government alone. The experience of the European welfare state shows that in the end, everyone has to pay for a large government. With the annual deficit approaching $2 trillion, the real problem is that tax revenues are too low. There’s too much spending.
