Foreign Investment in U.S. and Imports are Substitutes

It is strange how the media often respond to the prospects of tariffs on imports by pointing to foreign owned factories in the United States, implying that these are somehow at risk if tariffs are imposed. The NYT gives us an example of this reporting today in a front page article.

The piece highlights a number of foreign owned factories in the United States and includes data on foreign direct investment by country and also employment levels. It also includes the warning:

"But political and b...