Tariffs, Tariffs, Tariffs

Media Hit, 3/6/25

I’m on NewsMax in later this morning, talking about… you guessed it… TARIFFS! Turns out, they’re all the nation wants to talk about this week and I am 100% fine with that. I’ve got the links and they’re all about tariffs, so I’m just going to post those first and then get into the talking points.

Links:

• https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/05/trumps-tariffs-are-worse-than-anyone-imagined

• https://www.npr.org/2025/03/06/g-s1-52336/up-first-newsletter-big-3-automakers-trump-tariffs-fired-usda-workers

• https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2025/03/04/trump-tariffs-ontario-canada-responds-bourbon-industry/81380746007/

Talking Points

• I hate to say “I told you so” but… I told you so. And so did basically every actual professional economist.

  • This isn’t a mystery and it’s not rocket science.

• What’s fascinating, though, is the turn around particularly with the automotive industry:

• Note that in his address to Congress, Trump said that all three of the major auto manufacturing companies supported his tariffs. Then, the very next day, Trump announced exemptions to the Canadian tariffs for the US auto industry. For one month.

  • This is just farcical at this point.

• Here’s the truth. Tariffs cause:

  • Increased prices for consumers

  • Increased costs for manufacturers

  • You don’t get economic success from doing those two things.

  • You get the opposite and the stock market stands as evidence of this.

  • It’s only a matter of time before the labor market catches up to the stock market.

• More tellingly, look at what this has done to our economic relationship with Canada and Mexico

  • They are both actively looking to reduce their trade with the US in order to avoid falling victim to a capricious president hellbent on raising tariffs.

  • This is a disaster waiting to happen.

• There are plenty of problems with other countries’ trade policies with the US.

  • And we should try to do something about those.

  • However. Tariffs have not worked in the past, they are clearly not working now, and they will not work in the future.

  • They need to be abandoned and we need to pivot to a different strategy that 1) actually has a chance of working and 2) will strengthen, not diminish, our trade relationships with other countries.

So What Happened?

I was joined by Pete Sepp again, which was great. Between the two of us, we hit basically all of the talking points above, with Pete (once again) adding several great points that I hadn’t considered.