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George Will documents some of the countless costs of Trump’s trade war war on trade [2]. A slice:

This does not suggest economic health but might produce something pleasing to the president whose macroeconomic theory makes up in brevity what it lacks in nuance: “Low interest rates are good [3].” He is forever hectoring the Federal Reserve to lower rates, which it might again do if it sees a recession tiptoeing toward us. So, a recession would be an interestingly injurious carom — a win, of a perverse sort — from his trade war.

Phil Magness tells the history of how capitalist-abolitionists fought slavery [4]. A slice:

Interest in the history of American capitalism is on the rise, although curiously this line of study is being advanced for anticapitalistic ideological reasons as may be found in the New York Times’ new 1619 Project, on American slavery. Much of the associated academic literature, including sources used by the Times, relies on empirically shoddy [5] and politicized lines of research that several leading economic historians have conclusively refuted [6] (my own comments on the problems with this subfield may be found here [7]).

In eschewing factual analysis for political narratives, these scholars and the journalists who promote them appear to be far more interested in weaponizing the history of slavery with biased and even fabricated claims for the purpose of discrediting capitalism and free markets in the present day. They neglect the historical antagonism [8] that existed between slave owners and free market capitalism, including a leading slavery defender who declared that capitalism was “at war with all kinds of slavery.”

Jeff Tucker sings the praises of John Papola’s new film, “The Pursuit [9].”

Later today you can catch GMU Econ alum Ryan Young on the Bob Zadek Show [10]. The topic is antitrust.

David Henderson fondly remembers the late David Koch [11].

Here’s Eric Boehm on Trump’s inexcusable and appalling “order” to American companies to stop doing business in China [12]. A slice:

If Trump wanted to help American businesses, he would end his destructive [13] and increasingly erratic trade war instead of rage-tweeting “orders” that would be easier to laugh at if they weren’t further a further demonstration of how little he knows about what he imagines he can design [14].

Even as the tariffs fail to achieve their goals—while imposing immense economic costs along the way—there can be no doubt about the fundamental authoritarianism at the center of the economic nationalism project [15]. That mask started slipping long ago. Today, Trump yanked it off.

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