I also believe that as president, the Donald will succeed in implementing more widespread and higher tariffs, although I wish it were not so. The president-elect has admired using trade as a weapon for a long, long time, even before he considered running for political office... Unfortunately for this free market/free trade economist, the country seems to side with him. So, just as the US and the world slide into recession, the US will repeat the disastrous Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 that triggered worldwide reciprocal tariffs. Depression, tyranny, and war followed. So, the Donald may get his tariffs only to go down in history as the twenty-first century’s Herbert Hoover.
Notice that it is the electorate that will get its way, perhaps not fully but at least partially... [T]he electorate supports higher tariffs. Despite both theoretical and empirical evidence that enacting tariffs is like shooting oneself in the foot, I think the Donald and the electorate will get them.
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