Trump’s Factory Revival Is Happening
Think what you will of President Trump’s chaotic-seeming tariff policies. The ostensible goal — the revitalization of US manufacturing — is of decisive importance for the success of the nation.
Think what you will of President Trump’s chaotic-seeming tariff policies. The ostensible goal — the revitalization of US manufacturing — is of decisive importance for the success of the nation. Or put another way, America is unlikely to maintain global primacy with finance, services, and high-tech alone. All the capital, nice hotels, and mind-bending apps in the world can’t replace factories. While tariffs may prove a good start toward this goal, they are hardly sufficient.
Tariffs are hardly a MAGA invention, of course. On the contrary, the United States has levied protective tariffs almost from its origins as a nation. Tariffs and import substitution formed one of the central pillars of Alexander Hamilton’s political economy.
Today, Europe screams about Trumpian tariffs, but the Continent has been reluctant to lower its own historically high protective barriers, most of them based on non-tariff regulatory policies. Canada, too, has been very protectionist and for a long time. Now, after decades in which Washington put global integration over its own workers and industry, America is playing the same game.
Economic Dynamism
The Causal Effect of News on Inflation Expectations
This paper studies the response of household inflation expectations to television news coverage of inflation.
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The Rise of Inflation Targeting
This paper discusses the interactions between politics and economic ideas leading to the adoption of inflation targeting in the United States.
Demystifying the New Deal
Carola Binder reviews False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933–1947 by George Selgin
Why Is California Losing Good Jobs to Other States? It’s Not Rocket Science
The system that made California dynamic and prosperous for so long is now broken and backward-looking
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State Capitalism with MAGA Characteristics
The notion of government “partnering” with industry isn’t new, and it ends with taxpayers on the hook, politicians dictating corporate strategy, and competitiveness compromised.
Creating Affordable Housing Requires Just One Simple Legislative Change
For nearly 50 years, federal, state, and local governments have tried to improve housing affordability without addressing the core issue of high construction costs.
