Tariffs Worsened the Problem; More Tariffs Won’t Alleviate It

(Don Boudreaux)

In this excellent video of less than six minutes Taleed Brown busts some of the many myths about the alleged benefits of protectionism.

And remember this reality: those who call for nationalization of the production of “critical” supplies or for reducing Americans’ “dependency” on non-American sources of supplies of “critical” or “essential” goods have no theory of how their schemes will work. It’s not that they have a bad or weak theory; they have no theory. Or, more precisely, these advocates of overriding markets have only this as their theory: “we have faith that government officials will do as we hope they will do.” These opponents of markets simply declare their devotion to some aspirational outcomes and then trust that government officials charged with the task of achieving these aspirational outcomes will do so, or will at least outperform markets.