A friend wrote me today asking what I thought about President Donald Trump's recent steps to impose new or higher tariffs on some imports. He appreciated my response, so I thought readers here might appreciate it as well. The justification of import tariffs as protecting domestic employment is an age-old fallacy rooted in what Frederic Bastiat called the problem of the things that are seen and the things that are not seen. Imports threaten domestic employment only if the total cost of the … [Read more...]