On March 16, members of the Trump administration appeared on the Sunday morning network talk shows arguing that retaliatory tariffs are necessary for revitalizing American industries by promoting a “fair” international trade regime. On CBS’s Face the Nation broadcast, Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered this justification for retaliatory tariffs:
I have heard a lot of Republicans and conservatives warn about the fiscal crisis that will come from the increase in government debt, not just in the US, but all over the world. I didn’t seem to get it, partly due to the fact that we have not had an “official” crash since 2008 and government debt has ballooned globally. Last year, I decided to really study to know why.
Human beings are individuals as well as members of groups. Due to the prevalence of stereotypes and prejudices in relation to groups, it is often thought that there is not much point in individual members of disadvantaged groups attempting to make economic progress. The prevailing notion, which is rooted in egalitarian ideologies and interventionist policies, is that economic progress is impeded by membership of a disadvantaged group.
In February 2025, President Trump implemented an extra 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on imports from China, which doubled to 20 percent last week. There’s also a 10 percent tariff on energy resources from Canada. This is significant as goods from China, Mexico and Canada accounted for more than 40 percent of imports into the US in 2024. On March 11, 2025, the uncertain climate led many investors to withdraw from tariffed sectors with elastic demand, causing a US stock market decline.
Liberty, next to religion, has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, two thousand four hundred and sixty years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilisation; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
According to most commentators, artificially lowering interest rates by the central bank prompts businesses to increase investments in capital goods and the structure of production (e.g., tools, machinery, infrastructure). This is supposed to increase economic growth. In short, artificially lowering interest rates equals economic growth. But does it make any sense?
Looking back on more than a century of expanding bureaucracies, waning civic virtue, and the increasing substitution of state-led planning for individual initiative, the work of Alexis de Tocqueville remains, unfortunately, prescient as ever. Fortunately for modern defenders of liberty, Ralph Raico left behind an unpublished manuscript on Tocqueville, posthumously made available by the Mises Institute.
“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” - H.L. Mencken
