Source: Washington Post
by Joseph Politano
“To understand why nearly every economist believes that Donald Trump’s protectionist trade agenda will be a blow to the U.S. economy, look to his team’s own favorite case study: the great laundry tariffs of 2018. … In proponents’ retelling of the story, the spike was only temporary. Prices soon came back down as investments in U.S. washer manufacturing successfully built out domestic capacity. By early 2020, they say, prices had fallen back to pre-tariff levels before the unforeseeable effects of the covid-19 pandemic caused them to shoot back up again. In actuality, prices remained high even years after the tariffs were implemented, especially when you consider prices would have likely dropped another 5 percent to 10 percent in their absence, as they had throughout the early part of the 2010s.” (10/08/24)