Source: The UnPopulist
by Emily Chamlee-Wright
“As an economist, I feel professionally obligated to point out that there is nothing inherently bad about trade deficits. Americans run deficits with some countries and surpluses with others as a natural result of consumer choice and comparative advantage, not because of nefarious foreign barriers. Again, as an economist, I care a great deal about trade — not as an abstraction, but as a mechanism of opportunity. Since the end of World War II, freer trade has catalyzed the greatest reduction of poverty in human history. In America and around the globe, wherever leaders have embraced markets, economic liberalization has raised life expectancy, lowered infant mortality, and created pathways to prosperity. … That’s why I’m baffled by the idea that tariffs are a pathway to renewal.” (04/09/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/this-administrations-mercurial-trade