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Citing Doug Irwin’s soaring new book, Clashing Over Commerce, George Will rightly and correctly scolds Trump’s protectionism.  Here’s his conclusion:

Fomenting spurious anxieties about national security is the first refuge of rent-seeking scoundrels who tart up their protectionism as patriotism when they inveigle government into lining their pockets with money extracted from their fellow citizens. Sugar producers are ludicrously protected in the name of “food security.” Most U.S. steel imports come from four important allies: Canada, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil. The coming steel tariffs/taxes will mean that defense dollars will buy fewer ships, tanks and armored vehicles, just as the trillion infrastructure dollars the administration talks about will buy fewer bridges and other steel-using projects. As Henry George said, with protectionism a nation does to itself in peacetime what an enemy tries to do to it in war.

Sarah Skwire writes beautifully about trade’s moral and spiritual blessings.

Kevin Williamson bemoans populist hostility to free trade.

Megan McArdle adds her voice to those of us who decry Trump’s recently imposed punitive tax on Americans who buy new washing machines.  (HT David Levey)

Here’s David Henderson on allegations that U.S. labor markets are infected with monopsony power.  And be sure not to miss the spot-on comment below his post by Brandon Berg.

Also from David Henderson is this sharing of a great point made on Facebook by Clemson University’s Tom Hazlett.

Tim Worstall corrects Angus Deaton on the state of poverty in the United States.

Bob Higgs offers deep insight about immigration.

Also on immigration – on DACA and Trump’s abominable border wall, specifically – is my wise and humane Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold.

My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy continues her fight against cronyism.

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