by jpitney | Mar 25, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Jason Douglas and Tom Fairless at WSJ: Barriers to open trade are rising across the world at a pace unseen in decades, a cascade of protectionism that harks back to the isolationist fervor that swept the globe in the 1930s and worsened the Great Depression. It isn’t...
by jpitney | Mar 14, 2025 | Economic Policy, Taxes, Trade
‘Milton Friedman, April 27, 1978: The interesting question, and the question I want to explore with you today, is why is it that interference with international trade has been so widespread, despite the almost uniform condemnation of such measures by economists?...
by jpitney | Mar 2, 2025 | Debt, Economic Policy
Bruce Mehlman: The U.S. government spent more paying interest on our national debt than on defense spending for the first time ever in 2024, and will again every year for the foreseeable future. Surely no big deal, right? In fact America’s net interest payments on our...
by jpitney | Feb 12, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Jeff Luse at Reason: The U.S. is the second-largest steel importer in the world, according to the International Trade Administration. In 2023, the U.S. imported 25.6 million metric tons of steel and exported a little more than 8.2 million metric tons. About half of...
by jpitney | Feb 3, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Lindsay Wise at WSJ: The precise impact will depend on how long the tariffs stay in place and if other countries retaliate. The Tax Policy Center, a think tank, estimates the average household’s after-tax income will fall 1%, or $930, in 2026 because of the...
by jpitney | Feb 2, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Wall Street Journal: The U.S. doesn’t produce enough lumber to meet domestic demand and thus imports about a third of the softwood used in home construction, mostly from Canada. Environmental policies restrict logging on public land in the American Northwest. Timber...
