Tariffs, Universities and the Family Wage
In this April 7th edition of the Briefing Room, Patrick Deneen, C.C. Pecknold and Gladden Pappin discuss the new economic realities facing us.
LIKE PATRICK BUCHANAN BEFORE HIM, President Trump has long been an advocate of using tariffs to rebalance international trade in ways that put “America First.” It’s sometimes been called “economic patriotism.” Trump ran on this, and promised to use the tariff tool strategically on nations like China. Economists tend to regard tariffs as inflationary. Yet Trump can point to his targeted tariffs on China in 2018/19 as evidence that they aren’t necessarily a disaster waiting to happen. The Chinese effectively paid for the tariffs with no discernible downside.
Trump has always spoken of using tariffs strategically and reciprocally. It can hardly be said that tariffs are unjust interferences in the market. They simply set tariffs at parity, which is a kind of justice. So why should everyone be in a panic now? Perhaps it’s not tariffs themselves that have caused panic, but it’s the market realization that the administration is serious about using American power to reshape world trade in ways which shift the advantage from Global Capital back to America — not only for the sake of “economic patriotism” but also national security, mindful of the way America has become overly dependent on competing nations.
Secretary Bessent advised other nations not to make the mistake of responding to new reciprocal tariffs as aggressive acts of trade war — and despite considerable market volatility over the past week, other nations are not behaving like they are entering a trade war, but a new economic reality. The British PM, Keir Starmer, admitted to The Times over the weekend “that Globalisation doesn’t work for a lot of working people. We don’t believe trade wars are the answer. This is a chance to show that there’s a different path.” Starmer added, “Trump has done something that we don’t agree with, but there’s a reason why people are behind him on this. The world has changed, globalisation is over and we are now in a new era.” Indeed, a postliberal era.