Free Republic

The most important thing to know about the Trump administration’s defense of its hotly contested use of tariffs to bring allies and opponents to heel is not that it is a novel and unprecedented legal argument but rather a full-throated articulation of the campaign themes that got the president elected – in both 2016 and 2000. In its legal documents, and in the oral arguments that took place before the Supreme Court Wednesday, the Trump administration paints a picture of America under siege. Once thriving industrial towns in the Midwest hollowed out. Factories dismantled as supply chains have been moved...

With a social-media post that said “STOP LYIN” about there being an affordability crisis, President Trump claims he’s whipped inflation. But consumers are still feeling the squeeze. Target’s prices are up 5.5% nationwide this year and Walmart’s are up 5.3%, according to an analysis by DataWeave, which looked at roughly 16,000 items across each retailer’s website. Amazon’s price hikes have averaged more than 12%, according to a report. After seven months under Trump’s tariffs, Americans are paying more for nearly everything — from a cup of joe and plush living room sofas to children’s toys. Inflation for food has been...

In the most significant economic case to reach the Supreme Court in years, Trump’s authority to issue emergency tariffs faced deep skepticism from key conservatives — including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. • While justices had tough questions for both sides, a majority expressed reservations about the administration relying on declared emergencies to issue the unchecked tariffs. • As plaintiffs presented their case, Kavanaugh repeatedly noted that courts had previously allowed then-President Richard Nixon to use similar emergency powers to impose tariffs during his administration. • Both sides previously framed the...

President Donald Trump's use of sweeping tariffs faced sharp questioning at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in a case with major implications for the president's agenda and the global economy. A majority of justices, including several conservatives, expressed doubts about the White House's justification of the import duties, which the president has said are necessary to restore America's manufacturing base and fix its trade imbalance. The measures are being challenged by a number of small businesses and a group of states, which contend that the president has overstepped his authority in imposing the levies, which are in effect a tax....

Beginning at 9:30 a.m., we will be live blogging as the court hears oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump.

Small-business owners sued over Trump’s tariffs, saying they had severely disrupted their businesses.The outcome is likely to turn on three doctrines that have been championed by the Supreme Court’s conservatives. WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservatives face a test of their own making this week as they decide whether President Trump had the legal authority to impose tariffs on imports from nations across the globe.At issue are import taxes that are paid by American businesses and consumers. Small-business owners had sued, including a maker of “learning toys” in Illinois and a New York importer of wines and spirits. They said...

I wrote here and here about the federal lawsuit that challenges President Trump’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose most of his tariffs, including his worldwide “reciprocal” tariffs. The case, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. v. Trump, originated in the Court of International Trade, which held 3-0 that the challenged tariffs were not authorized by Congress. That decision was upheld on a 7-4 vote by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The case is now in the Supreme Court, where it will be argued tomorrow. The New York Post covers the Supreme Court proceeding,...

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—What is the Fed not telling us? The numbers clearly indicate that big trouble is brewing in the banking system. I wish that I could specifically tell you which banks are in the most trouble, but at this stage we simply aren’t being told anything. They probably figure that the best approach is to try to keep everyone as calm as possible. But they won’t be able to keep a lid on what is going on indefinitely, and when word finally gets out people could start to panic. In recent weeks, bank reserves have fallen to alarmingly...

LEXINGTON — Candidates for U.S. Senate in Kentucky talked on Wednesday about national economic and trade policies before a gathering focused on manufacturing and innovation. Answering questions in front of the Kentucky Industry Conference held in Lexington this week, top Republican candidates — former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and businessman Nate Morris — reiterated their support for President Donald Trump’s agenda. Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, the only Democratic candidate to address the forum, offered a different view and said “what we’re seeing from this administration right now is dangerous and not normal.” The candidates...

Inflation is lower than expected after President Trump’s steep levies. (The rest is behind a pay wall.)

Leftist Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted this weekend he had apologized to President Donald Trump in person during their mutual attendance at events related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea last week. Carney made the apology over an advertisement produced by the provincial government of Ontario and airing in the United States, using the words of former President Ronald Reagan to oppose American tariffs on Canadian goods. Omitted from the ad was the fact that Reagan’s speech was, in fact, an announcement of the imposition of tariffs on Japan and that, while Reagan opposed tariffs...

Gyeongju, South Korea – United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to call off a mutual escalation in their countries’ trade war, lowering the temperature in a heated confrontation that has threatened to upend the global economy. Trump and Xi sealed a one-year trade truce on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time since 2019. But while Trump and Xi’s agreement offered a reprieve to businesses unsettled by months of back-and-forth trade salvoes, it did little to roll...

Here's a look at how US tariffs on Chinese goods have changed during President Trump's second term so far. February: Trump imposes a 10% tariff on Chinese goods due to what he said was the flow of the drug fentanyl to the US. March: The president adds another 10% tariff on goods from China, accusing it of not doing enough to address the fentanyl flow to the US. April: Trump adds a 34% levy on all Chinese imports as part of his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs. This brings the total to 54% on Chinese goods. This is on top of...

The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, with five Republicans joining Democrats in a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president over trade policy. Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats in the 52 to 48 vote. McConnell has long been critical of Trump’s trade policy, and said in a statement ahead of the vote, “Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.” The...

America’s labor market is flashing red, and the Federal Reserve is watching the light change instead of hitting the brakes. Job openings have fallen to 7.26 million, the lowest level in 4½ years. Private-sector hiring has turned negative, with September’s ADP data showing -32,000 jobs after August was revised down to -3,000. Employers’ plans to add workers have plunged 71% from last year, and year-to-date hiring announcements are the weakest since 2009. The Fed must move decisively by cutting rates 50 basis points in both the October and December meetings to prevent further deterioration in employment and restore confidence to...

Consumer prices rose less than expected in September, government data showed Friday, clearing the path for further rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and suggesting that tariffs are not weighing on household budgets. The consumer price index increased 0.3 percent last month, down from the 0.4 percent in August. Economists had forecast a 0.4 percent increase. Compared with a year ago, consumer prices are up 3.0 percent, slightly below the 3.1 percent forecast. Core prices, a metric that excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, below the estimate for 0.3 percent. Over the past 12 months, core prices are...

The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are due to meet in South Korea next week. However, it is uncertain whether they actually will. Such is the shocking state of the world’s most important relationship. For weeks, America and China have been lashing out at each other. America has tightened tech-export restrictions and threatened higher tariffs; China has wielded sanctions and restrictions on rare earths. The two sides communicate poorly. In the White House there is a belief that America has the upper hand in this test of nerves and pain-tolerance. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, says China is “weak”. But the...

The beef industry is battling multiple challenges: a prolonged drought across key cattle states, record‑high feed costs and the smallest U.S. cattle herd in 75 years.Beef prices in the United States are at record highs heading into the holiday season — and tariffs aren’t the only reason. At Oak Barn Beef in West Point, Nebraska, family tradition runs deep. Owner and operator Hannah Klitz is a fifth‑generation cattle producer. Alongside her husband, she sells farm‑to‑table beef to the local community and ships products nationwide. "Quarter four is normally our busiest quarter, just because of all of the gifting — and...

President Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs has secured overwhelming support among Republican voters, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll, cementing a dramatic transformation in conservative economic thinking that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. The survey, conducted Oct. 17-20, found that roughly two-thirds of Trump voters and Republicans support maintaining or increasing current tariff levels — a striking endorsement of trade policies that the party’s establishment once uniformly opposed. Among conservatives, 62 percent support maintaining or increasing current tariff levels. Even more remarkably, 59 percent of Trump voters back imposing a 100 percent tariff on all goods imported from...