Bonus Quotation of the Day…

by Don Boudreaux on January 19, 2020

in Crony Capitalism, Trade

… is from page 31 of the original edition of Lee Francis Lybarger’s 1914 book, The Tariff (which I just received as a generous gift from David Henderson) (original emphases):

But the word [“protectionism”] as used in the Tariff has the very opposite meaning. It does not protect the people from extortion. It subjects them to extortion, by leaving them to the tender mercies of only one set of sellers. It does not protect the people from high prices. It exposes them to such conditions as make prices high. That is its purpose. The only way a Protective Tariff can possibly operate is to increase the price of the things on which it is levied.

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