Tariffs Are Not Only Nonsense, But Dangerous Nonsense

By Liberty Report Staff

Murray Rothbard on tariffs (excerpted from The Free Market Reader):

The best way to look at tariffs or import quotas or other protectionist restraints is to forget about political boundaries.

Political boundaries of nations may be important for other reasons, but they have no economic meaning whatever. Suppose, for example, that each state of the United States were a separate nation. Then we would hear a lot of protectionist bellyaching that we are now fortunately spared....