One of the most brilliant and forceful attacks on Cold War foreign policy in the postwar era came from the pen of the veteran free-market publicist Garet Garrett, In his pamphlet "The Rise of Empire."
It is not "the US" that imports Japanese or Chinese electrical appliances, but an individual from the US, or a group of Americans. They import these appliances because they believe that a profit can be made. And governments ought not interfere in these transactions.
Tariffs inflict harm on real people, empowering bureaucracy and the state, while destroying the rights of real-world entrepreneurs and consumers. Yet, some people claiming to support free markets are perfectly fine with this.
Even the more "subtle" or "nuanced" arguments for tariffs smack of the same old mercantilist arguments that have been refuted by economists going back to Adam Smith.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is aghast that some people like to pick up a few bucks doing work which brings no prestige. This is part of a larger obsession among politicians with de-valuing and working against unglamorous jobs that involve "dirty" work.
Central banks' efforts to artificially stabilize interest rates encourages greater risk-taking by banks, and contributes to instability in the banking sector.
