Over the weekend, just for a few hours, I agreed with President Trump on trade policies. He insisted on “No tariffs, no barriers, that’s the way it should be — and no subsidies.” And that is absolutely the way it should be. Allow producers, whoever they may be and wherever they’re from, to compete for our dollars by sating our desires as best they can. In that manner, we get more of our desires sated at the lowest possible cost. This is what the whole economic game is supposed to be about.
This is also the standard free trade position. Actually, it’s the standard non-foolish economic position in general: Let that free market rip and watch as we all get richer. It’s just that there’s no conceptual difference between those outside our own national borders and inside them. Getting better stuff cheaper still makes us richer, whichever side of the line on the map it was made.
