With Venezuela's Oil, Trump Is Doing Exactly As Conservatives Desire
Donald Trump is doing exactly as modern conservatives should want him to do in Venezuela. Which speaks to how much conservatism has changed. To see why, pivot to Hong Kong.
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Essays
Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
28 essays · Newest first
Clear filtersDon't Blame Chinese 'Psyops' for Data Center Angst
There are 7,700 McDonald’s stores in China, with plans for 10,000 by 2028. McDonald’s is one of many potent symbols of Americana that’s proliferating in China. Which is the underlying point of a…
Tariff Legislation Honoring Lindsey Graham Is Abjectly Irresponsible
The Graham legislation doesn’t just vandalize economics, it’s incredibly damaging in an economic sense… Continue reading on Forbes.
There Was No “China Shock,” There Was a Big China Boom
Detroit’s existing workers weren’t harmed by a global influx of people in pursuit of Henry Ford’s $5/daily wage. The impressive pay Ford offered as a way of shrinking employee turnover logically…
A Free Trader Responds to a Free Trader About Free Trade
I’m very grateful to Dave Hebert that he’s never gone wobbly on the genius of free trade. He’s right that we agree. Why my response to his? It’s an attempt to convince him not about free trade, but…
The Supreme Court Tariff Case Is Evidence That the System Is Working
Does anyone else get a little weary of the peanut gallery every time a court issues a ruling on a matter of national interest? Have you read Hobbes, Locke, the authors of the Federalist…
The 6-3 Supreme Court Tariff Vote Calls for Term-Limited Judges
In 1981, and while trying to get the tax cuts he favored passed by Congress, Ronald Reagan joked about getting shot again to move public opinion in his direction, and by extension, congressional…
Economists Whiffed Tariffs Precisely Because They Whiffed Inflation
They’re both wrong. Who is? Trump supporters who’ve long defended mindless tariffs, along with economists wisely against mindless tariffs, but who now claim they didn’t really mean what they said…
With Tariffs and Trade, the Trump Administration Takes a Positive Step
President Trump is happily overstepping the naivete that informs so much economic commentary. While the experts continue to look to the Federal Reserve to bring down prices via the tweaking of…
Forced Foreign Investment Is the Most Embarrassing Aspect of Trump’s Trade Deals
Americans don’t require their government to secure them investment. The world lines up to invest in U.S. genius not because presidents or Commerce Departments enter deals with other countries, but…
Would You Cheer for Tariffs on Sure-Fire Cancer Cures?
The New York Times reported last week that Legend Biotech has developed a potential cure for the incurable and brutally painful disease known as multiple myeloma. It raises a question: would readers…
Take $3B From Harvard and All Universities, Don't Give It To Trade Schools
I’m opposed to President Trump’s idea of taking $3 billion in federal grant money from Harvard and giving it to trade schools; however, I’m very much in favor of taking $3…
There’s No Such Thing As ‘Rebalancing’ Global Trade
There’s foolish and then there’s macroeconomics. Macroeconomics insults foolish. Was “economics” always this dense? Acknowledging that there’s no empirical way to answer the previous question, it…
Thanks to Markets, We Don’t Need ‘Wait-and-See’ With Trump Tariffs
Before investor Bill Ackman requested from President Trump a pause on his tariffs, he perhaps reasonably observed that Trump deserved the benefit of the doubt, that he’s often forged another path to…
Tariffs Are Awful, Gov’t Spending Is Worse. Neither Is Inflation
The Fed is tasked with fighting inflation that neither it nor Congress understands. See the accepted view among politicians, economists and pundits that if the Fed centrally plans low, but…
America Is Easily the U.S.’s Best, Most Influential, Most Peaceful Export
On January 26, 2023, popular U.S. hamburger chain Five Guys opened in Seoul, South Korea’s capital city. The weather was rainy and humid, but South Koreans braved up to twelve hours in line to get a…
Free Traders Embracing President Trump’s Trade Proposal
The Wall Street Journal reported how Ford Motor Company’s best-selling F-150 has become the latest example of the negative impact of the new tariff movement. The F-150 in particular, and the…
Forget the Negative Income Tax, How About a Negative Tariff?
Milton Friedman was incorrect. About the negative income tax, specifically. The great Nobel Laureate (1912-2006) viewed a negative income tax as something that would encourage work. While most people…
Donald Trump's Endgame With Tariffs Is Not What You Think
I could hardly be happier with the actions of the Trump Administration, though I’m not a tariff guy. Donald Trump is perhaps the most atypical politician since George Washington,…
Trade Disputes Are An Unfortunate Effect of Floating Money
“They have treated us very unfairly on trade.” That’s one of President Trump’s most frequent economic themes, and he has a point. So do “they.” To see why, it’s easy to forget that no one buys or…
Politicians Want a Trade War With China, Americans Don’t
The Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is now the most downloaded app in 140 markets worldwide, including Apple’s App Store and Alphabet’s Android Play Store. To say American consumers…
Contra the Washington Post, Exports Are a Bullish Sign of Imports
“The world is being swamped with Chinese goods, and the United States, Europe and Japan are right to worry about it.” Those are the opening words of a recent Washington Post editorial about Chinese…
Joe Biden’s Protectionism Threatens Our National Security
The legendary Boeing 747 was a brilliant consequence of six million different parts produced by man and machine around the world. Absent this wildly sophisticated division of labor, 747s wouldn’t…
If You Hated School, Then You Intuit the Genius of Trade
Markets are wise, and it’s in the countries where foreign producers are aggressively pursuing and gaining market share the most that you know the future is brightest.