No—Tariffs Are Not Good for American Workers and Here’s Why

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., founder of the Mises Institute and a warrior for economic sanity, lays down the case against tariffs like a prizefighter landing body blows. And he’s right to do it. While Trump and his loyalists dress up tariffs in the red-white-and-blue of “America First,” what they’re really doing is handing more control to bureaucrats and lobbyists, driving up costs for the rest of us, and calling it “patriotism.”

Let’s not sugarcoat this: tariffs are nothing more than government coercion wrapped in a flag. They distort markets, enrich the politically connected, and hammer the working class—all while pretending to protect them. What Rockwell politely calls “protectionism,” I’ll go ahead and call by its real name: economic authoritarianism.

Now let’s rip the cover off this scam.