Bonus Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on July 29, 2018
… is from this remarkably wonderful recent column in the Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby:
Tariffs don’t punish countries. They punish innumerable consumers, wholesalers, importers, exporters, farmers, manufacturers — the myriad discrete actors whose choices and preferences are the true substance of international trade. To those individuals, national trade deficits and surpluses are irrelevant. They aren’t competing — they’re cooperating. Buyers and sellers aren’t in conflict with each other, let alone with each other’s countries.
On the contrary: By doing business together, traders create wealth and connections, knitting the world together in mutual interest, making the planet more harmonious.
Trade war is an insidious term. The metaphor notwithstanding, trade isn’t war. It’s peace.
DBx: Do be sure to read Jeff’s column in full.
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