Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
Editor:
Patrick Walsh is right that Alexander Hamilton was more of a protectionist than Andrew Langer made him out to be (Letters, September 7). But this reality doesn’t imply that Hamilton would support Trump’s tariffs. As Phil Gramm and I noted in these pages, Hamilton defended protection largely as a means of helping nascent American manufacturers overcome established European competitors. Because many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs protect mature, and in some cases world-leading, American industries – including steel, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals – it’s illegitimate for Mr. Walsh to leap from Hamilton’s support for infant-industry protection to the conclusion that Mr. Trump’s tariffs are Hamiltonian.
Mr. Walsh, however, is correct on another point – namely, that “Messrs. Trump and Vance, like Hamilton, scorn ideology. They are interested in what Hamilton called the ‘particular situation.’” Sad but true, for a name for people who scorn ideology in order to judge only each “particular situation” is “unprincipled.” Although Mr. Walsh regards this lack of principle in American leaders as a feature to cheer, wiser people recognize it as a bug to fear.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
