Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“Markets have swooned and spiked and swooned again as President Donald Trump has alternately imposed and then paused large new tariffs. What has stayed consistent through every announcement is the dismal quality of the public arguments for these spasms of protectionism. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has run through many of the worst ones. ‘A lot of our trading partners, including some of our allies, have not been good partners,’ he told Tucker Carlson. ‘If tariffs are so bad, why do they have them?’ Governments throughout history have pursued policies that impoverish their people. Many countries, including our own, have recently had high inflation. If it’s so bad, why has it been so widespread? But Bessent’s point is even weaker than that.” (04/11/25)