Last week was a pretty heavy week for me in terms of writing and media. Combine that with my wife being out of town and my son having Spring Break and, well, it was pretty rough. Fortunately, I’ve got family nearby who were able to help out with my son during the day and even cooked dinner for us a couple times, so it definitely could have been worse. But, it was nice to get to spend a whole lot of time with both kids, which I’ll never turn down.
Anyway, on to the recap:
Writing Output
There Is No ‘Just Tariff’ - Religion & Liberty Online
This was a fun one to write. My basic point (which is one that I’ll be expanding upon later this week in another article) was that we shouldn’t expect policymakers to follow the “straight and narrow” of theories of justice or economics. Their incentives just aren’t aligned with doing that.
Reagan Knew the Art of the Trade Deal Better - The Daily Economy
This was a fun one to write with Marcus Witcher of WVU. We both chastise the use of tariffs when there are tools that are 1) effective and 2) are not destructive that could be used instead.
We’re going to work on a follow up to this one this week, taking on the whole “even Reagan had limits to free markets, as we know from what he did with Japan’s automotive sector.”
The ‘Most Bad’ Option: Trump’s Tariff Uncertainties - The American Spectator
This one really, really frustrated me. If you look, it was published at 12:45 PM on April 9th. I had written it the day/night before and sent it in late, so it came out really quickly, which was great. But at 1:18 PM, Trump announced his 90 day pause on most tariffs, which was just more of what this piece rails against.
How Tariffs Starve U.S. Investment - Civitas Outlook
This was one was a joy to write, mostly because my friend and co-author, Dan Smith, wrote most of it. I just did some minor finishing touches. But hey, it ended up in Civitas Outlook, which is a better outlet than where we originally wanted to send it, so… all’s well that ends well. And I like the argument.
TV/Radio
All told, I had seven TV/radio appearances this past week. I don’t have links to all of them just yet, but here’s what I have so far:
Investor’s Business Daily, 4/9 (though it was recorded 4/7)
I was actually really proud of how this one in particular went.
There was another NewsMax hit or two in there, but I don’t have the recordings to those. I also haven’t looked for them, so maybe they’re out there somewhere.