Kush Desai: U.S. trade deficits are a "national emergency"

The only special interest guiding President Trump’s decisions is the interest of the American people.  The entire administration is aligned on addressing the national emergency that President Trump has rightfully identified is posed by our country running regular trade deficits.

~ White House spokesman Kush Desai, "Wall Street Gets Rude Shock as Bessent Plays Second Fiddle on Tariffs," Bloomberg, April 5, 2025

Stephen Miran: "In the long run, the tariff rate will make the United States more competitive"

The wrongs of excessive trade imbalances and the wrongs of excessive globalization didn't happen overnight and they also won't be fixed overnight...  In the long run, the tariff rate will make the United States more competitive, vis a vis our trading partners.

~ Stephen Miran, Fox News interview, April 4, 2025

Daniel McAdams on big government in America

America has massive problems, which can be summed up in two words — overwhelming government. Despite some impressive exposures from DOGE, our chief problem is being exacerbated.  Government spending is increasing, government debt is increasing, President Trump threatens new wars, and now we’re in the midst of a trade war.  The troops are not coming home, the 1,000 bases are not being closed, and the “foreign aid,” is not being eliminated.  In order to get rid of overwhelming government, all of these variables have to move in the opposite direction.

~ Daniel McAdams, "More Spending, More Debts, More War — And A Trade War?," LewRockwell.com, April 4, 2025

Max Rangeley and Daniel Hannan on the post-WWII trade order

In closing, we know what happened when the world moved away from Cobdenite [free trade] principles.  It happened at the beginning of the 20th century with cataclysmic consequences.  Indeed it was precisely as a reaction to the horrors of the two wars, the Holocaust and the Holodomor that delegations from the free nations met in Bretton Woods in 1944 and agreed to a progressive reduction in trade barriers, a policy which led to the creation of what is now the World Trade Organization and to seven decades of unprecedented democracy as well as unprecedented prosperity.  

That process is now going in reverse.  Trade is falling as a proportion of global GDP and we are seeing a revival of the doom loop between political instability and autarkic tendencies.  "The owl of Minerva," wrote Hegel, "spreads its wings only with the gathering of the dusk."  If ever there was a time to remind ourselves how fortunate we have been in the economic order we have enjoyed, that time is upon us.

~ Max Rangeley and Daniel Hannan, Free Trade in the Twenty-First Century," Preface

2025

Mark Thornton on protectionism

It's important that Austrians and friends of the Austrian School realize that protectionism is just a step forward to war.  It's a step forward to human impoverishment and it's a step towards human division, hate and devolution.  Protectionism is the health of the state.

~ Mark Thornton, "Free Trade in the Twenty-First Century," Minor Issues, 3:40 mark, March 29, 2025