Wednesday 1 February 2017

Tyler Cowen on Trumponomics

I still think Trumponomics won’t work. It is too divisive; it will be applied politically, targeting favorites and enemies, rather than in accord with the dictates of efficiency; it may destroy rather than create jobs on net; and most of all it badly damages the U.S.’s global reach by cooperating less on issues of trade and migration. I think of the program as a whole as cashing in on the capital asset of America’s foreign reputation and redistributing some of those rents to Trump-supporting regions. That is a form of shortsightedness, and a sign of the decay of our republic.
That's from Cowen's column, The Left Underestimates Trump's Economic Plan, at Bloomberg. While Trumponomics may very well damage the US economy we also have to keep in mind what damage it will do to the world economy. Trumps moves on trade could spark a trade war which could damage the world trading system. The last thing we need is a repeat of the Smoot-Hawley episode. No one wins a trade war.

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