Hey, RoJo (and Po' Jay Weber): US Will Win on Tariffs

Sen. RoJo, famous for his promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare, is also firmly in the "free trade" camp.  For an accountant, he doesn't know too much about economics.

Jay Weber is a product of a School of Education.  That will tell you what HE knows about economics--which is whatever the Free Traders TELL Jay to know.

There are people, however, who actually make sense on the topic.

Let's settle the ".......but PRICES are BETTER!!!" bullshit first.

...Pretend NAFTA reduced prices in your town by 5 percent, but wages also declined by 5 percent because of offshoring. Now what? An economist could truthfully say that NAFTA benefited American consumers by reducing prices—but that truth is also a lie, since NAFTA reduced wages by the same amount. In the end, NAFTA had no effect on prices in real terms. Bill Clinton was wrong. NAFTA was a sham....

If it were only 5%!!!

....In 2011, an economist at Princeton University found that the average wage cut for those American workers displaced by offshoring was 17.5 percent—and that does not include the millions of people who dropped out of the labor force altogether. Further, the job loss caused by globalization has caused American wages to stagnate. According to data from Pew Research, the median hourly wage in 1973 was $22.07 (in 2014 purchasing power), whereas the median hourly wage in 2014 was just $20.74. Essentially, the median American is economically worse off than he was nearly 50 years ago (technological improvements aside). 

The American dream is dying, and free trade is to blame.

As to the CRISIS of the PORK PRODUCERS!!!!  (Bring ice water for Jay here....)

...China is targeting American pork and soybean producers with retaliatory tariffs. Let’s hope we do get a trade war—it may be the only way to force Congress to take Chinese neomercantilism seriously....
 
...To begin with, raw commodities like soybeans and pork are fungible. That is, American pork is indistinguishable from Canadian or Brazilian pork. As such, these retaliatory tariffs would have no effect on American pork producers: the Chinese will simply buy more Canadian and Brazilian pork, and America will sell more pork to Canada and Brazil—we will “fill in the gaps.” Unsurprisingly, America’s hog farmers realize this, and most aren’t concerned....

Well, except the hog farmers who want more Gummint subsidies, of course.

Jay will explain how, since Trump has caused the DJIA to fall, that Jay really wants Obama back in the White House.