John Torinus: So 20th Century

A long, long, long time ago, John Torinus was relevant as the business editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel.  Everybody read the Sentinel's business pages; if they read Ray Kenney's Journal scribbling, it was only to see what the enemy was up to.

That was then.

This is now, and Torinus' 20th-Century thinking is bedraggled.  Recently, he wrote a column screed about Trump's tariff proposals in which he demonstrated that he doesn't do his homework.  Torinus claimed that those tariffs will be inflationary--that is, they will cost the US consumer a lot of money.

We'll take Torinus' "inflation" every day of the week--as it was only ONE POINT FOUR percent during the Trump-tariff regime. 

Then Torinus yammered on about how China's counter-tariffs on US agriculture products was killing farmers.

Wrong again, John.  It was killing Big Ag--General Mills, Cargill, and Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM).  They were no longer able to set prices in their favor and against the interests of the US consumer and growers.

BONUS WRONG:  US Ag exports rose from $137 BN in 2015 to $149 BN in 2020.  

You'd think Torinus would apprehend what Trump is doing here--he's imposing a consumption tax, which will extract a lot more money from the Big Consumers (the eeeeeeeevil rrrrrrrrich!!!) than from Joe and Suzy Middle-Class.

But John's getting old and rusty, like his economics.