ArcaMax

Whenever the subject of trade comes up, many right-leaning free traders and left-leaning neoliberals alike trot out the same talking point: "The economists all agree tariffs are terrible!" And perhaps they do -- or at least most of them do. Barriers to free and unfettered trade may well appear "inefficient" as a matter of an economic model's "...Read more

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cautioned last month that Americans will likely experience "a detox period" after President Donald Trump implements his wide-ranging tariffs.

What are we detoxing from, exactly?

From an abundance of affordable goods and the world's highest living standards? From consistent economic growth? From leading the ...Read more

One need not rely on experts to know tariffs are typically not a good policy. Going back to Adam Smith writing "The Wealth of Nations," we know it is better to manufacture cheap commodities in areas that can make them cheaply so that wealthier nations can spend their wealth more productively. Adding tariffs historically disrupts that balance ...Read more

Our media elites love to tout themselves as "independent" and "fact-based." But on almost any story on Donald Trump, they can't help but put those words in the shredder.

The Kennedy Center illustrates one major difference between the two Trump terms. In the first term, the president deferred to the leftists who gave all the Kennedy Center ...Read more

Is President Donald Trump bent on political self-harm? It often seems that way. His overall job approval rating still hovers within a point or two of the 50% popular vote he received last November. But he is losing support on the economy and inflation, the No. 1 issue last year, while his overwhelming success in reducing illegal immigration has ...Read more

Opinions are like an appendix: everyone has one, it serves no particular purpose, most of the time it’s completely ignored and you only notice it when it’s removed.

This is exactly what occurred to me when I observed the manufactured controversy involving Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post editorial board. The Amazon wunderkind’s ...Read more