As much as it seems to pain mainstream Democrats, Donald Trump didn’t win the presidency because of a vast Russian conspiracy. He won because, for one, his message of protectionism and economic nationalism happened to appeal to many people in critical states,...
protectionism
We Are Still A Long Way From ‘The Russians Hacked the Election’
As much as it seems to pain mainstream Democrats, Donald Trump didn’t win the presidency because of a vast Russian conspiracy. He won because, for one, his message of protectionism and economic nationalism happened to appeal to many people in critical states,...
The Last Fed Chairman?
Last week the Senate confirmed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chairman by a vote of 84-13. This is in contrast to the contentious debates and closer votes over Janet Yellen’s confirmation in 2014 and Ben Bernanke’s confirmation for a second term in 2010. Powell...
TGIF: The Voice of American Workers Is a Charlatan
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed voice of American working people, has decreed that the prices of washing machines and solar panels shall rise. So it is written. So it is done. Trump's decree, placing tariffs (taxes) on imported versions of those goods, will impose...
Freedom, Protectionism, and Pipe Tobacco
One of my haunts is a local tobacco shop, where I regularly drop in to smoke a few bowls of fine pipe tobacco and talk to a fine group of friends and acquaintances. I go there to relax, which is what pipe smoking is all about, but part of yesterday's visit was...
Consumption, Not Trade Balance, Is the Purpose of Production
Just about every argument opposing the unfettered freedom to exchange goods and services across all borders rests on the failure to appreciate that, as Adam Smith put it, “consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.” For example, Kevin L. Kearns,...
On Patriotic Correctness
While political correctness is typically associated with the American Left, modern conservatism has its own sacred totems that dare not be criticized. Like its progressive counterparts, the Right’s choices of sanctification fit together like an elegant jigsaw puzzle...
TGIF: Tribalism and Economic Nationalism – Cut from the Same Cloth
I have no idea what goes on in Donald Trump's head, but I can imagine a connection between his refusal to renounce the support of alt-right white identitarians and his rejection of globalism -- that is, the freedom of people to trade across national boundaries and to...
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