In an article for the Washington Post, Charles Lane discusses the Trump administration's recent attempts to manipulate trade data to bolster its case for protectionism. Not only does he expose the radical-left-wing origins of the Trump administration’s proposal to change the way that goods transshipped through the U.S. are accounted for in trade statistics, Mr. … Continue reading Now Trump Wants to Use “Alternative Statistics”
Category: Trade
“[O]n life support,” says US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) of the “Border Adjustment Tax,” proposed during last year’s GOP presidential primaries by US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and backed by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI). If the idea is indeed dead, American workers and consumers should heave a sigh of relief. It’s a very bad … Continue reading The Target of the “Border Adjustment Tax” is You
When word got out in January 1848 that gold had been discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, near Sacramento, it triggered the famous California Gold Rush, which in a few short years brought some 300,000 fortune seekers to the territory, whose population at the time was just 155,000, most of them Native Americans. President Trump’s … Continue reading Mexico Tariff Will Attract, Not Deter, Immigrants
The pronunciation in English is lay-say-fair. Its French origins date back to the late Renaissance. As the story goes, it was first used about the year 1680, a time when the nation-state was on the rise throughout Europe. The French finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, asked a merchant named M. Le Gendre what the state could … Continue reading What Is Laissez-Faire?
Few American presidential elections have drawn as much international interest and concern as the one in 2016. Certainly, who is elected and sits in the White House in Washington, D. C. matters to many people everywhere since America remains a political, economic and military colossus influencing major and minor events around the globe. To Donald … Continue reading Protectionism Makes Great Countries Poor Again
Today, many Americans aspire to be independent of foreign goods. Not only do they choose to “buy American,” they want to ensure that everyone is compelled to do the same. A thought experiment can help us decipher the wisdom of this. Let’s suppose that umbrella imports are banned in the United States; that is, Americans … Continue reading What Imports Mean for Your Slice of the American Pie
As part of an otherwise very good tax reform plan, House Republicans have proposed to modify the corporate income tax so that it becomes a “destination-based cash-flow tax.” For those not familiar with wonky inside-the-beltway tax terminology, there are three main things to understand about this proposal. First, the tax rate on business would drop … Continue reading Don’t Ruin A Chance for Tax Reform with “Border Adjustments”
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