President Donald Trump last Thursday abruptly announced that he intended to impose a 25 percent tariff on all imported steel, and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. On Friday Trump tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” Fellow administration protectionists Peter Navarro (director of the White House National Trade Council) and Wilbur Ross (Commerce secretary, pictured), have fanned out to the cable networks to argue that across-the-board levies amount to pennies on the dollar and are nonetheless worth it for the urgent task of reducing bilateral and overall trade deficits.
Ah, but trade deficits are not remotely bad things, Reason Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward argues on today’s Reason Podcast, which also features Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch talking news of the week. The group also takes up last night’s Oscars, this past weekend’s LibertyCon, and the awful “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” that overwhelmingly passed the House last week.
Audio production by Ian Keyser.
Relevant links from the show:
“Trump’s Impulsive Trade War Is Lousy Economics and Worrisome Politics,” by Matt Welch
“Trump Has Exposed the GOP’s Shallowness on Fiscal Restraint and Free Markets,” by Shikha Dalmia
“Trump’s Tariffs Will Crush the Beer Industry,” by Eric Boehm
“Inside the bitter Oval Office tariff fight,” Axios
“Are ‘Inclusion Riders’ a Libertarian Solution to Workplace Inequality or P.C. Run Amok?” by Nick Gillespie
“In the Market, Get Out and Dunkirk Won the Race for Best Picture,” by Eric Boehm
“Kurt Loder on Why the Oscars Always Suck but Movies Are Great: Podcast,” by Nick Gillespie and Mark McDaniel
“House Passes ‘Anti Sex-Trafficking’ Bill Opposed by Both DOJ and Trafficking Survivors,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
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