Free Republic

In a trade war, we are told, foreign manufacturers are not affected at all by tariffs imposed by the U.S. government. Only U.S. consumers will pay more. Yet, mysteriously, if a foreign country imposes tariffs on U.S. exports, it is a catastrophe for U.S. manufacturers and “farmers” (giant conglomerates). So we are told that U.S. exporters will suffer from a trade war. However, foreign producers importing to the U.S. will not be affected in the slightest. That is not sound analysis, but propaganda. Saying that tariffs hurt U.S. consumers and U.S. producers, but tariffs have no effect at all on...

The media and other Trump haters can't seem to let themselves admit it, but President Donald Trump scored a big victory for the American economy on trade last week. Trump and the European Union reached a handshake deal that is designed to lower tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic. They agreed to shoot for zero tariffs. Sounds like freer and fairer trade to me. The exact details are still a bit murky, but what we do know is that the EU has pledged to lower its tariffs and other trade barriers on American soybeans, oil and gas, pharmaceutical...

FLOTUS in Nashville:She was visiting a children’s hospital that treats babies born with Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) - a group of conditions caused when a baby withdraws from opioids they were exposed to in the womb – i.e. mom was a drug addict. Of course the haters immediately unloaded on Melania because, you know, her husband is TEARING CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS ARMS! Meantime her husband, VSGDJT, just continues to MAGA, renegotiating trade deals around the world that will put the U.S. back on what the Left likes to call a “level playing field.” All while managing to keep the...

Sorry for the vanity but Rush did a 180 on trade today and I am proud of him. Rush confessed he was wrong all of these decades about trade, live on air just a few minutes ago! He also admitted Perot was correct and the the one sided trade the US( and its workers ) have been subjected to was wrong and it was erroneously pawned off as 'free trade'. He said he was duped by economists. I just listened in amazement committing free trade heresy live. It was a great radio show today! Awesome! Rush is off my S...

A leading German think tank says Donald Trump is right that tariffs between the United States and Europe are asymmetrical, but urges negotiations to lower import taxes across the board. US President Donald Trump may actually have a point when it comes to unfair taxes on US goods coming into Europe. That is the finding of a new study by a leading German think tank. Where they differ is how to deal with it: The group urges new talks to lower tariffs across the board, instead of engaging in a tit-for-tat escalation in new taxes. “The EU is by no...

Trump called out Trudeau's hypocrisy and now the two nations are on a brink of an all-out trade war. Trudeau only has votes to gain, risking the entire Canadian economy to get them; meantime, Trump could start to patriate the entire auto sector, securing mega votes in Michigan once again. Why are Cuckservatives siding with Trudeau and is there any sane way to make Dairy Nationalism Great Again?

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took a jab at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday, saying he was "not so sure" about McCain's remarks on Saturday that a majority of Americans favor free trade. "I'm not so sure John's right about where America is on trade," Graham told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "The [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] element of the Democratic Party doesn't stand for free trade. Hillary Clinton said she would get out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership if she had become president. There is a movement in our party that Trump's seized that got him the nomination, and...

Mexico put tariffs on American products ranging from steel to pork and bourbon on Tuesday, retaliating against import duties on metals imposed by President Donald Trump and taking aim at Republican strongholds ahead of U.S. congressional elections in November. Mexico’s response further raises trade tensions between the two countries and adds a new complication to efforts to renegotiate the trillion-dollar North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. American pork producers, for whom Mexico is the largest export market, were dismayed by the move. Trump last week rattled some of the United States’ closest allies by...

Billionaire conservative icon David Koch is stepping down from the Koch brothers’ network of business and political activities. The 78-year-old New York resident is suffering from deteriorating health, according to a letter that older brother Charles Koch sent to company officials Tuesday morning. Charles Koch wrote that he is “deeply saddened” by his brother’s retirement. “David has always been a fighter and is dealing with this challenge in the same way,” he wrote. […] Democrats have demonized the Koch brothers for their outsized influence in conservative politics over the last decade. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid regularly attacked Republicans...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich hinted again Sunday at a possible 2020 presidential run by ripping the Republican Party and declaring “I can bring that party back.” The Republican governor accused the GOP of being “anti-immigrant, anti-trade, in favor of debt,” and implored party members to “come home.” “We should care about people from top to bottom, not just at those at the top but everybody,” Mr. Kasich told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I can bring that party back, that’s what I’m going to do, in one way or another.”

The European Union and Mexico reached an agreement on Saturday on a new free trade deal, a coup for both parties in the face of increased protectionism from the United States under President Donald Trump. Since its plans for a trade alliance with the United States were frozen after Trump’s election victory, the EU has focused instead on trying to champion open markets and seal accords with other like-minded countries. The agreement in principle with Mexico follows a deal struck last year with Japan and comes ahead of talks next week with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and...

A new attack ad against DeSantis has links to the bare knuckled political operative -------------snip--------------- Today an outfit called National Liberty Federation began airing about $290,000 in ads on radio and Fox News TV stations across Florida hammering Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis: -------snip--------- The National Liberty Federation is run by a Palm Beach County resident named Everett Wilkinson, who used to call the group the South Florida Tea Party. Wilkinson for years has worked closely with Roger Stone, hosting a 2011 Boca Raton Trump rally that served as a harbinger of his presidential campaign, vocally supporting more casinos in...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed a renewed economic partnership to boost growth, jobs and investments in their two countries. […] Trudeau said “we already see the results” of the new trade rules, called the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act (CETA). Canadian imports from France have increased 4 percent last year and Canadian investments in France have jumped 23 percent, he said. …

The new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump have generated intense controversy. With the debate ongoing, it might be useful to examine how other countries have dealt with similar policy debates in the past. New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and is one of the champions of economic freedom around the world. But it wasn’t always so. In the mid-1980s, New Zealand was facing an economic crisis, with its domestic market and international trade both heavily regulated. Unemployment had reached 11 percent, and inflation was a sky-high 15 percent. In response, the government...

Shapiro claims that I favor “total state control of the economy” because I think it is possible to “simply pick the best industries and subsidize them.” Apparently, tariffs are Communism, and I am Stalin. . . Shapiro has it entirely backward: tariffs are the form of taxation most consistent with small government. . . tariffs are antithetical to big government because they preclude socialism. How? Tariffs make imports expensive. This encourages domestic production and discourages offshoring—thereby boosting demand for American labor. Basically, tariffs create stable jobs and increase wages for American workers... The key to solving this puzzle is recognizing...

This week, the President slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to enhance domestic steel production, to the dismay of liberal economists and journalists who don’t understand history and common sense. Here at this editorial we are unabashedly pro-tariff, not only because they work, but because without them we lose control of important aspects of our economy and of our society as a whole. Needless to say, we believe these steel tariffs is welcomed news. Aside from the tariffs though, President Trump has also now asked China to reduce their trade deficit with the United States by 100 billion dollars...

Whenever you hear any of these arguments against free trade, you will have answers. The arguments against free-trade all have this in common: they rely on coercion by the government. All of them rely on a concept of the legitimacy of government agents with badges and guns who have the moral authority and legal right to stick a gun in the belly of one or more people who want to make a voluntary transaction. The government tells these people that they do not have the moral right or the legal authority to make such a transaction. Think of two men:...

I like free trade – I just don’t like snooty ideologues who won’t take their own country’s side in a trade fight. The ideal market means a willing buyer and a willing seller paying a mutually agreed price for goods or services with minimal government interference. That’s called “capitalism,” and as a business owner and someone who digs prosperity, I really like it. So why am I not wetting myself about Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs? Cue the True Conservatives™ to tell me it’s because I’m stupid and terrible and awful. I know how they work. It was only...

HERE'S A HUGELY winning issue for President Donald Trump that would deal with a gross trading abuse and simultaneously advance his goal of reducing the prices of prescription drugs: Insist that foreign buyers of American pharmaceuticals--almost without exception government agencies--pay their fair share of the research and development costs of these medicines. Currently, Americans are subsidizing overseas users of our drugs. Here's how that works. The average price of successfully bringing a new medicine to market in the U.S. is about $2.4 billion. The entire approval process takes some 12 years before a drug receives its final green light. The...

President Donald Trump has had a splendid first year in office. He has the economy moving again and at a healthy pace, some 2.6 percent in the most recent quarter. Unemployment is down, the stock market is up and the economic signs are mostly healthy. Well, for the stock market that was until last week. That was the week in which the President announced his intention to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. The market tanked, and more problems are said to be coming internationally. It appears the world does not...