Josh Hendrickson on the Trump tariff strategy

If you favor smaller government and you believe his [Stephen Miran's] argument, then I think that you would be in favor of higher tariffs and lower income taxes... and to the extent we have debt, also potentially coupling that with reductions in government spending.

[...]

The U.S. effective tariff rate is so low relative to other countries that the U.S. is just in a better position to raise tariffs relative to those other countries.  So on some level, that makes it harder to retaliate.  The other issue... is that this currency offset seems to go in one direction.  It seems to go for the United States and not necessarily for these other countries, for them than the initial tariffs on the U.S.

~ Josh Hendrickson, economics professor, Ole Miss, "Unpacking the Document that Spells Out Trump’s Tariff Strategy," The Human Action Podcast, February 14, 2025

(Professor Hendrickson is referring to a paper written by Stephen Miran, President Trump's nominee to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, which lays out Trump's tariff strategy.)