Comment by tivert

Comment by tivert 2 days ago

> To be more clear, I meant that it was typical for foreign governments to impose retaliative tariffs.

And in the context of massive trade deficits, so what? IIRC, when the Trump tariffs went into effect, there was a lot written that the Chinese didn't have many levers to pull to respond, because of the US trade deficit. I think they implemented a tariff against soybeans (and some other non-tariff actions), and that was about it.

> To say nothing of who actually pays the cost of tarrifs.[0][1]

Who cares who technically pays, especially when they're correcting for some other market distortion? Focusing on that is a hallmark of libertarian anti-tariff propaganda that's pretty monomaniacally focused on free trade dogma and prices to the exclusion of all other considerations.

johnmaguire 2 days ago

> And in the context of massive trade deficits, so what?

I was thinking more in the context of consumer inflation. Countries tend to go back and forth in a tariff war, effectively raising taxes and lowering incomes for their citizens.

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tivert a day ago

>> And in the context of massive trade deficits, so what?
> I was thinking more in the context of consumer inflation. Countries tend to go back and forth in a tariff war, effectively raising taxes and lowering incomes for their citizens.
That's monomaniacal focus on short-term "prices to the exclusion of all other considerations." An artificially low subsidized price isn't a good deal, especially when its competing with your local industry.

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