How America Learned to Love Tariffs

A tariff makes something more expensive and thus less attractive to would-be consumers, who will either buy something similar at a lower price—be it made by a domestic producer or another foreign producer—or forgo the purchase. Tariffs can be put in place for many reasons, be it to protect firms that could otherwise not hold their own against impor

Globally, America has grown more alarmed about its enemies, less generous toward its friends, more wary of everybody.

My solution is that we should put in place tariffs on imports to offset what would be the overvaluation of our currency. These tariffs could come or go depending on the size of the deficit. They could also be flexibly applied to avoid unduly regressive effects on American consumers.

Free trade is a form of trade in which goods and services easily cross borders and can be purchased at a “market price” that reflects the costs of production and transit along with whatever profit the manufacturer seeks. The principal alternatives to free trade tend to be protectionism, which involves erecting barriers to imports to shield domestic