trade

It was French king Louis XIV (1638-1715) who famously declared, “L’etat c’est moi” (“I am the state”). This week, it was clearer than usual that this is an attitude apparently shared by Donald Trump, president of the United States. 

A new paper forthcoming in the journal American Economic Review: Insights estimates the effect of trade with China on American consumers and shows us what we stand to lose if we don’t end the trade war.

Many self-described free marketeers vociferously oppose antitrust laws.

Donny Kendal and John Nothdurft are joined by Justin Haskins in episode #144 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s podcast features work from The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and the Tax Foundation.

Will tariffs on imported steel and aluminum help or harm US workers?

What do Democrats plan to do with the tariff economy they themselves helped create?

Trump’s choice of Lighthizer is excellent personnel – to finally deliver us the vastly improved Chinese IP policy candidate Trump promised.

Adam Smith’s central contribution to economic understanding was surely his demonstration that under an institutional arrangement of individual liberty, property rights, and voluntary exchange the self-interested conduct of market participants could be shown to be consistent with a general betterment of the human condition.

In this episode of the weekly Budget & Tax News podcast, managing editor and research fellow Jesse Hathaway is joined by Mercatus Center senior research fellow Daniel Griswold, talking about why “globalization” is not a dirty word, despite what politicians may be telling people this year.

To wit: Unless I am mistaken, the Platform has called for the abolition of the Department of Education every cycle since the abomination’s 1979 creation by President Jimmy Carter (as a payoff to teachers unions for helping get him elected). Yet there the DoE still stands – bigger and worse than ever. A monument to terrible government policy and overreach – and GOP fecklessness. Heck, the GOP has contributed to its growth almost as much as have the Democrats.

Why have prices fallen so low? Because government subsidies created a glut – and the market is flooded. This government money warps and distorts the marketplace – as otherwise productively-directed time and effort is instead spent chasing the government coin. Producers produce not what the marketplace needs – but for what the government pays.

We are in the midst of a presidential race that is fundamentally changing how many view – and thought they knew – politics. Donald Trump especially is radically altering that map. What many thought were permanent lines – turned out to be drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch. That the presumptive Republican nominee has spent the last year shaking into oblivion.

In this episode of the weekly Budget & Tax News podcast, managing editor and research fellow Jesse Hathaway talks with Cato Institute policy analyst Dan Ikenson about how international trade is not a scoreboard to measure a nation’s economic success against other countries, but the best way to improve the lives of everyday Americans, and everyday people all over the world.