Source; Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut
“We’re now at the ‘good and hard’ part of H.L. Mencken’s definition about democracy being ‘the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it.’ That’s certainly the case with economic policy. If you occasionally check your retirement accounts and did so after the last two times President Donald Trump imposed 25-percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, you will have noticed that they dropped precipitously. The markets understand the basic truth about tariffs, which are taxes consumers in our country pay for imported goods. They raise prices, reduce our access to foreign goods and spark reciprocal tariffs that then punish our country’s farmers and manufacturers. They lead to less growth and more unemployment. They increase bureaucracy by requiring officials to calculate duties and enforce them. They create hostilities and have led to actual war.” (03/09/25)