Trump’s Annexation Proposals Should Be Nonstarters

Donald Trump’s proposals to annex Greenland, the Panama Canal, and/or Canada—and now an executive order renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America”—represents another ridiculous betrayal of the “America First” ideology he ran on and further illustrates another example of his difficulty in understanding economics (e.g., his proposed protectionist tariffs). Not only would these moves towards annexation be frowned upon constitutionally, ethically, and economically, but they would only serve to expand a globalist agenda, and destabilize both the US and the world altogether.

Tariffs and Industrial Policy Fail: The Cases of US, Japan, and China

In recent years, anti-market policies, such as tariffs and industrial policies, have resurged in popularity in the United States. Advocates for these measures submit they are essential to protecting domestic industries, fostering economic growth, and ensuring national security. However, historical evidence and economic analyses tell a different story—one in which these policies often fail to deliver their promised benefits. To understand why, we will examine the historical failures of tariffs in the United States and the ineffectiveness of industrial policies in Japan and China.

Anti-Market Bias Holds Back Developing Countries

A key reason that developing countries have often been unable to catch up to their developed counterparts is because of their refusal to accept the free market. In many parts of the world, free markets are considered unnecessary for economic growth. Governments of developing countries attempt to thrust their country into prosperity through various statist measures, but their efforts are doomed because they do not understand economics.

How to Stop the BRICS Nations from Abandoning the Dollar

The US government is aghast that there is a new grouping of nations that seeks to form an alternative to the US trade bloc and trade settlement system that uses the dollar. These nations have been driven to this extreme, time-consuming, and difficult project by clueless US leaders who have imposed sanctions on Russian assets (literally stealing them) and have denied Russia and other nations from using the SWIFT messaging system for trade settlement.