Monday, October 13, 2025

Trump Proved ‘Experts’ Wrong About Tariffs

All of the geniuses who predicted that tariffs would cause a recession were full of BS. - David Catron
Last April, Paul Krugman wrote the following about the reciprocal tariffs President Trump had just announced: “This is a much bigger shock to the economy than the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930.” 
  • Krugman trotted out that trite analogy not because he really believed Trump’s tariffs were comparable to Smoot-Hawley, but because he knew his Substack subscribers would vaguely recall reading about the latter in high school and feel intelligent. 
  • Six months later it’s blindingly obvious that Trump was right about the tariffs and Krugman’s portentous predictions were utterly moronic.
The U.S. is the largest consumer market on Earth. 
We could bankrupt most nations overnight by refusing to buy their exports...

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