Economic Policy

Thanks to President Trump‘s brinkmanship, tariffs are in the headlines. However, while the public knows about tariffs, few people actually understand them, their history, and how they work.

The only beneficiaries of the increase in tariffs are the government and a few companies that benefit from limited competition while everyone else is worse off.

By their nature, free markets promote harmony between people and increase overall standards of living. This view is radically different from the ones promoted by Marxists who believe that only “class interests” matter.

President Trump has declared today “Liberation Day,” because many of his tariffs come into force. His team is taking a gamble that either the law of supply and demand does not apply to trade or that the American public will be uncharacteristically fine with higher prices.

Economists like to claim that expectations of more inflation lead to, well, more inflation. Such beliefs ignore the fact that inflation is an increase in the money supply and that general price increases result from fractional reserve-created monetary expansion.

Western elites repeatedly call for “reparations” payments to former Western colonies ostensibly to lift them from poverty. By turning these countries into large welfare recipients, these elites perpetuate the very poverty they claim to decry.

An enduring myth among American historians is that President Hoover‘s response to the Depression was to let the free market work. This is totally false.

Immigration is an economic issue among others, and the reality is that resources are finite.

Bob responds to flawed arguments about trade deficits.

President Trump has suggested that the government eliminate the personal income tax and replace it with tariffs. While some may champion that proposal, the truth is that it is much easier to add a new tax than it is to eliminate it.