Doug Henwood analyzes the looming tariff follies. Barry
https://lbo-news.com/ Tariff follies Our new emperor has a well-advertised love of tariffs. They appeal to his grandiosity, as dramatic imperial gestures that will bring the world to heel at no cost to Americans, given his stubborn delusion that foreigners, not consumers, pay the duties. Should he carry through with his threats to slap 10%, 20%, 30%, tariffs on imports—many of them on products that aren’t even made here, so there aren’t any domestic substitutes—prices will rise significantly, quite the turn for a guy who ran against Bidenflation. I’ve written about Trump’s tariffs for Jacobin, notably their regressive effects, hitting the poor far harder than the rich, while doing nothing to stimulate domestic production, their intended purpose. (Between March 2018, when the tariffs were imposed, and January 2021, when Trump left office, steel production fell by 6%, almost twice as much as overall manufacturing.) All important, but now I’d like to take a quick look at tariffs in American economic history. In his Truth Social post announcing the creation of an “External Revenue Service” (ERS), Trump made some outlandish claims. It will, as he put it, demonstrating his idiosyncratic understanding of trade (and strange capitalization practices), “collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources. We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade….” Trade can be beneficial to both parties, though he makes it sound like a purely exploitative relation. And almost no one aside from him and his circle of advisers thinks that foreigners, rather than US consumers, pay tariffs,. But let’s set these issues aside for now. Instead, let’s look at tariffs over the long sweep of history. According to a useful factsheet from the Congressional Research Service, tariffs were an easy way to collect revenues in the early history of the country, which didn’t have a developed administrative structure. There were only so many ships docking in so many harbors to unload goods. So, taxing that merchandise was not much of a technical challenge. The government was small and didn’t need that much revenue anyway. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34828): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34828 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110809626/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
