150 Economists Sign Letter Opposing Trump’s Protectionist Agenda
President Donald Trump issued his executive order on regulating imports via “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2, which has been paused, substantially amended, or walked back in the two weeks since, wreaking havoc on the global economy. Economist Don Boudreaux, economic historian Phil Magness, and an unnamed group of economists authored the “Trade and Tariffs Declaration: A Statement on the Principles of American Prosperity” to warn Americans about the dire consequences of these protectionist policies.
The authors characterize the president’s actions as inverting “the principles of liberty that ushered in an American-led age of human freedom and prosperity.” They object to the president’s recent executive actions for “misdiagnos[ing] the nature of our nation’s economic ills [and] repudiat[ing] long-standing and widely held economic first principles,” which are peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, as Thomas Jefferson stated in his first inaugural address. Over one
Article from Reason.com
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