By Pierre Lemieux
“Build them here!” President Trump enjoined European car manufacturers in a June 22 tweet. This seems to be his real goal, assuming it is not confusedly autarky. In a July 1 Fox News interview, he repeated his hope that tariffs on European cars would bring European manufacturers to "build their cars in America." This old mercantilist idea is intriguing. Inspired by that, I tweeted: Why should Americans work to produce stuff for foreigners instead of for Americans? If you can...
I see a growing number of similarities between the US and Turkey. Here's another: President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser urged the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates “very slowly,” ignoring the practice from preceding administrations of avoiding comments on monetary policy out of respect...
Yes, each of us produces in order to consume, and the more each one wants to consume, the more he will have to produce. Although some people are lucky and don't have to produce anything to consume because others are willing to support them, we know how exceptional this is. That is only a starting point to understand the world we live in. Since many others will try to benefit from our work and production by resorting to violence and fraud, the second point should be what we are willing to sacrifice to protect ourselves from bandits. As long as this second point is ignored, the analysis is irrelevant.
EB , July 2, 5:23 pm.