Donald J. Boudreaux is a Associate Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and affiliated with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; a Mercatus Center Board Member; and a professor of economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University. He is the author of the books The Essential Hayek, Globalization, Hypocrites and Half-Wits, and his articles appear in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, US News & World Report as well as numerous scholarly journals. He writes a blog called Cafe Hayek and a regular column on economics for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Boudreaux earned a PhD in economics from Auburn University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
Compared to beneficiaries, the victims of government interventions are indeed typically more difficult to see — which is why good economists spend so much time and energy explaining the reality of these victims.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America writes as if tariffs will miraculously cause the workers and resources necessary to perform all this new production to materialize out of thin air – a proposition that causes one to laugh as one does when reading The Onion.
To trust the U.S. government to impose tariffs at home as it acts as an enforcer for private companies that choose to operate abroad is a recipe for cronyism costumed as ethical law enforcement.