protectionism

“Farcical” Net Zero Legislation to Force U.K. Car Makers to Subsidise Rival Chinese Electric Imports

As the EU threatens to fight the rising imports of Chinese electric cars with big new tariffs, the UK, under "farcical" Net Zero laws, is set to do the opposite and force UK car makers to subsidise their Chinese rivals.
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Macaulay and My 75-Cent Epiphanies, Part 1

Macaulay and My 75-Cent Epiphanies, Part 1 by James Bovard Fearing that my writing style was becoming anemic, I recently sought a literary booster shot from my bookshelves. Happily, a dozen volumes of Thomas Macaulay awaited me. Macaulay made history mesmerizing, and I have been captivated by his speed, grace, and wit for 40 years. […]
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Imperial Protectionism: US Foreign Policy for the Middle Class

What does a “foreign policy for the middle class” of the United States entail? President Joe Biden’s national security adviser is rather vague about this. But in a speech in April at the Brookings Institution, Jake Sullivan enunciated a few points that do much to pull the carpet from under the “rules-based international order”, unmasking […]

D.C.’s “Best Information Available” Charade

American Institute for Economic Research, February 19, 2022 D.C.’s “Best Information Available” Charade James Bovard On a sweltering June morning in 1993, I loitered in a long line of people stretched down a football-field length hallway on the third floor of the headquarters of the US Commerce Department. The queue started outside the entrance of […]
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Protectionism Is Immoral, Unjust, and Corrupt

Mises Institute, October 27, 2021 Protectionism Is Immoral, Unjust, and Corrupt by James Bovard Protectionism is reviving in Washington on both sides of the political aisle. Democrats are cheering proposals to restrict trade to benefit labor unions and save the environment while some Republicans are reviving Smoot-Hawley style salvation schemes. Protectionist advocates routinely seize the […]

Fair Trade Is Still a Fraud

American Institute for Economic Research, October 20, 2021 Fair Trade Is Still a Fraud James Bovard The Biden administration is embracing the same flawed “fair trade” mantra that previous administrations used to sanctify protectionist policies. Biden’s team has “largely dispensed with the idea of free trade as a goal in and of itself,” the New […]
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Heisting the Secret U.S. Tariff Code

American Institute for Economic Research, October 4, 2021 The Secret Tariff Code Heist James Bovard Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy,” as Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned in 1967. As a journalist, I have battled federal agencies for decades to try to discover the sordid details of how Americans’ rights and liberties are being shafted. […]
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Liberating the Secret U.S. Tariff Code

When I was researching The Fair Trade Fraud, I ran into a stone wall of secrecy surrounding the U.S. tariff code. There was no reason to treat the tariff on tobacco stems like confidential national security data. Here’s the story of how I solved those tariff code mysteries during a 1990 visit to the headquarters […]
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Steel Follies and the Perils of Politically-Controlled Trade

American Institute for Economic Research, April 22, 2021 Steel Follies and the Perils of Politically-Controlled Trade James Bovard The Biden administration appears determined to perpetrate all of Trump’s economic follies while adding fresh blunders of its own. Trump was notorious for saying incorrect things on trade, such as his assertion that “trade wars are good, […]

200th Anniversary of a Great American Demolition of Tyranny

Here’s my tribute to one of the best and least appreciated classics of American political thought. Here is a link to a free version of the original printing from 1822. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tyranny_Unmasked/HhHVAAAAMAAJ?hl=e… 200th Anniversary of a Great American Demolition of Tyranny by James Bovard This is the 200th anniversary of the publication of one of the […]