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Trade & Tariffs blog
The Best Antipoverty Program Ever Tried Was Letting People TradeCapitalism did not create poverty, and trade has done more to end it than any program. Here is the record, and the best objection answered fairly.Free trade, tariffs or managed trade, three theories side by sideConservatives hold three different trade philosophies and call them one. Here they are in a single table, with the best case and the weak spot of each.Smoot-Hawley in 1930 and the Tariff Lesson Republicans Should Know WellThe most famous tariff in American history was a Republican law. What it did, what the economists argue about, and the doctrine it teaches us.Ronald Reagan was no free-trade purist, and his record proves itReagan gave free-trade speeches and also imposed quotas and tariffs, and the record shows a pragmatist who used leverage to open markets.Trade Is Foreign Policy and Every President Has Treated It That WayEmbargoes, aid, tariffs and export controls have always been weapons of statecraft, and treating trade as only economics misreads our history.Congress Should Write the Laws, and Other Radical Ideas From Article IArticle I gives Congress all the lawmaking power. The nondelegation argument says it cannot hand that job away. Here is the case, the cases and the objection.Who really pays a tariff, following the dollar from dock to shelfThe importer writes the check, but the burden spreads. Follow a hypothetical $100 part through three cases, then weigh the case for tariffs against the cost.Republicans were the tariff party first, from Lincoln to McKinleyThe Republican Party was born protectionist, and free trade is the newer chapter. A dated history from Hamilton to NAFTA and what it means for today's argument.Smoot-Hawley, 1930, what the tariff did and what it did not doA fair account of the 1930 tariff law, the retaliation it triggered, the other causes of the Depression, and what a careful speaker may claim.Why the Protective Tariff Was Republican Gospel From Morrill to McKinleyFor fifty years Republicans tied the tariff to wages, factories and revenue. Here is the case they made, the critique at its strongest, and the record.William McKinley was the tariff king until his last speech changed his mindThe man behind the 1890 tariff ended his career arguing for reciprocity treaties, and his story shows how Republican trade thinking argues with itself.Seven myths about Herbert Hoover the do-nothing presidentHoover tried more to fight a depression than any earlier president. Seven common claims tested against the record, and what conservatives should learn.From the 1989 Canada deal to USMCA, a timeline of North American tradeRepublicans and Democrats wrote North America's trade rules in turn. Dated entries from 1965 to the USMCA review clause show what each step changed.Seven trade myths both parties repeat, tested against the recordFree-trade slogans and tariff slogans both fail inspection. Seven popular claims are stated fairly and tested against the record.