Once upon a time, the political right was all about free trade. Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney put together the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988, which was a model for NAFTA. Trade barriers were bad, they said. Also back then, it was the Left that was raging against creeping globalism.
Yes - the American right has been on quite the journey. There are still a lot of Republican senators and congressmen who would vote for FTAs but they aren't going to cross Trump.
Yes - mine is a replacement - unfortunately a knock-off sold in the UK as the original, ironically, can't be shipped here. Hence the hilarious spelling mistake on "dysfunction".
Tariffs are part of the unintended mitigation of global warming. 🤭 Other measures Trump has proposed as well as his more general destabilizing influence may also have such "chilling effects". Wouldn't it be funny if Trump would become a green champion without any intention on his behalf?
It’s just going to be his first day, DP we need immediate results? If we’re going to work with him and his administration, then ain’t that a good life should it be?
I wish we could just sit down and make everybody listen to a few books on tape about the depression or the robber barons. It’s maddening to know that we’ve been here before.
I disagree. They are also a mechanism for avoiding economic and industrial domination and the destruction of indigenous industries by other unfriendly states and by unfair means.
Reminds me of the style of slogan beloved of the Maoist communists from my student days. Slogans that rejected brevity in preference to impenetrability
I don't know much about macroeconomics but if widget manufactures are charged an extra $20 to import each widget wouldn't they just raise the price of widgets to cover that cost?
Not necessarily in theory (they might keep the price the same and sell fewer widgets), but the experience of Trump I was that either the US companies that bought the widgets took a hit on profits or they passed the price rise all the way through to the consumer.
Tariffs are the stupid reason why tomatoes are referred to as vegetables - after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that the fruit of the tomato plant is not a fruit but a vegetable.
Comments
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https://pjmedia.com/tyler-o-neil/2018/04/26/what-is-up-with-these-libertarian-tariff-t-shirts-and-why-is-a-u-s-senator-wearing-one-n57553
cc @scottlincicome.bsky.social
Dysfuntion = not enjoyable, or only enjoyable in a twisted way.
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/what-populists-dont-understand-about-tariffs-economists-do
This sends the CEOs groveling (as we already have seen). For this, they work just fine!
Is this a subtle announcement that you’ve taken a job at the Guardian?