Seattle’s Minimum Wage Hike Hurts Workers
“Seattle’s minimum wage increased to $20.76 per hour”
https://reason.com/2025/01/06/seattles-minimum-wage-hike-hurts-workers/
Tag: economics
Tariffs Raise Prices, Spark Conflicts, and Make Everyone Poorer
“The markets understand the basic truth about tariffs, which are taxes consumers in our country pay for imported goods. They raise prices, reduce our access to foreign goods and spark reciprocal tariffs that then punish our country’s farmers and manufacturers. They lead to less growth and more unemployment. They increase bureaucracy by requiring officials to calculate duties and enforce them. They create hostilities and have led to actual war.
As economist Robert Higgs explains, “Fiscally, protectionism is a poor source of government revenue that dries up completely as tariffs are increased so much that they reduce trade flows to zero. Morally, protectionism is vicious because it coercively substitutes the ill-informed and ill-directed judgment of government officials for the judgment of people making deals with their own private property.””
…
“Trump threatened them to gain ill-defined concessions from our friendly, highly developed and peaceful allies to the north. Then, after it was clear Canada had already conceded to whatever it was our president demanded, he suspended them. His supporters claimed tariff critics didn’t understand that this was just a brilliant negotiating tool. But then this month the president imposed them anyway. True to form, MAGA shifted back to arguing that tariffs are great policy in and of themselves.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/14/tariffs-raise-prices-spark-conflicts-and-make-everyone-poorer/
Howard Lutnick Doesn’t Get To Decide What You Buy
“What Lutnick is talking about is central planning, plain and simple. It’s also just silly. How much of America’s aluminum supply should come from Canada if not 60 percent? Is 50 percent the right amount? Is it 17.54 percent? Lutnick doesn’t know—because no one does—because that’s a question without an answer.
Clearly, however, the Trump administration wants the figure to be lower. New 25 percent tariffs on aluminum imports might accomplish that, but at significant cost to American consumers and businesses, whose only offense is buying aluminum from sources located within a country that is a close American ally and the signatory of a trade deal that the current president negotiated just five years ago.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/14/howard-lutnick-doesnt-get-to-decide-what-you-buy/
Is Trump’s Trade War Causing a Recession?
“Any hope of robust economic growth resulting from unleashing energy abundance, deregulating the private sector economy, or pro-growth tax policy may now be doused by the economic fallout of a pointless trade war.
It started as a murmur—a slight downward revision, nothing alarming. But within five days, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow forecast for the first quarter of 2025 went from mild optimism (2.3 percent growth) to outright recessionary territory (-1.5 percent). By March 3, the number had plunged to -2.8 percent, the kind of contraction that doesn’t just signal weakness but outright economic distress. Eight months of stock market gains were wiped out in less than four weeks.”
…
“Global supply chains are rattled, businesses are reluctant to invest in capital, and consumers are cutting back on purchases. Tariffs—pitched as a way to bring jobs back—have instead choked growth. The administration’s bet that protectionism would insulate the economy from foreign competition is proving to be precisely the opposite: a self-inflicted wound.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/17/is-trumps-trade-war-causing-a-recession/
Watch MAGA Host COLLAPSE ON AIR as Trump CRASHES MARKETS
Watch MAGA Host COLLAPSE ON AIR as Trump CRASHES MARKETS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PRbtA8Bumo
Making Sense of America’s Tariff Chaos
‘Trump’s tariffs are short term pain for long term pain.
Tariffs will raise the price of the dollar, making U.S. exports more expensive. Other countries retaliate, making U.S. products more expensive. Raising the costs of inputs for U.S. outputs makes American products more expensive. This all hurts exports. These tariffs aren’t an export strategy, they are a self-reliance strategy, and self-reliance means a much smaller economy.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHbQWP0bGw
‘If You Compromise With Totalitarian Systems, You Will Pay a High Price’
“instead of trying to decouple unilaterally from China, let’s do it in an organized manner together. Let’s sit together at the negotiation table, because if 300 million Americans impose tariffs, that’s one thing. But if 300 million Americans plus 500 million Europeans and some of the largest economies in the world and other democracies from Japan to Australia are warm-heartedly invited to join, then I think we will have a much better outcome that is very much to the benefit of every non-authoritarian economy, but most importantly, for the U.S.
I would strongly suggest that “America First” will only work if it’s not America alone. And there are some issues where America will need partners in order to have the ultimate leverage, and I think that leverage would be increased by joining forces.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/18/mathias-dopfner-trump-europe-trade-00199102
EU wields ‘sledgehammer’ against Trump tariffs
“The European Union hit back hard as U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25 percent global steel and aluminum tariffs on Wednesday, announcing a two-stage retaliation covering €26 billion in EU exports that far exceeded a trade fight that blew up in his first term.
The European Commission said it would, from April 1, reimpose tariffs in response to €8 billion in U.S. tariffs — including on iconic American products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and jeans. And, from mid-April, it will set further countermeasures over €18 billion in new U.S. tariffs, subject to the approval of EU member states.
“We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in an early-morning statement.”
…
“The 27-nation bloc — a common market spanning 450 million people — wants to send an unmistakable message that the EU is serious about defending its economic interests should Trump launch a full-scale trade war.”
…
“The Commission left the door open to a deal with Trump, saying it “remains ready to work with the U.S. administration to find a negotiated solution” and adding that its measures “can be reversed at any time should such a solution be found.””
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-tariffs-donald-trump-diplomat-eu-war-defending-nation-bloc/
The Way Out of Our Inflation Mess
“It’s important for the new administration to understand that controlling inflation requires more than Federal Reserve action. It demands fiscal discipline. That means difficult choices that politicians typically avoid. Federal spending must be curtailed, particularly in entitlement programs. Tax revenues must be made stable and predictable. Most importantly, the administration must reject new spending, regardless of the apparent merits. Finally, more tax revenue through more growth—made possible by the improved tax system and deregulation—would help.
Continuing to ignore fiscal-monetary interactions and hoping inflation will mysteriously moderate risks a crisis that could dwarf any challenges we face today. Fiscal responsibility isn’t just about balancing books; it’s about maintaining the stability of the dollar and the prosperity of the American people. History tells us that the longer we wait, the more costly the eventual solution becomes.”
https://reason.com/2025/01/16/the-way-out-of-our-inflation-mess/
CHINA USA CANADA MEXICO EUROPE Trade War Erupts
An immediate impact of tariffs is increased prices. Paying more means less money for other purchases and investments. Less purchases and investments means a smaller economy than there otherwise would be. A smaller economy means less wealth and jobs for most people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQNMksYweWU