With consumer price inflation (CPI) running at 6.8% as of November 2021, many importers are trying to use inflation as an excuse for repealing the tariffs enacted by former President Donald Trump and continued by President Joe Biden. This is special interest pleading and bad economics. A close look at the state of the U.S.…
Global capital flows are the driving force behind the rise of the dollar, which rose 3.9% in 2021. In the last ten years, the dollar is up 25.5%[1]. The US attracts capital for many reasons, including tax avoidance, speculative trading, and a relatively small amount of genuine investment. The deregulation of financial markets in the…
A new paper by the “China Shock” economists adds to the growing mountain of literature documenting the costs of free trade events to the U.S. economy over the past half century. Their new paper, On the Persistence of the China Shock, shows that increased unemployment, protracted withdrawal from the labor force, and other social ills…
The United States bike industry is in the midst of an unprecedented boom, triggered by the COVID pandemic. Bike sales rose sharply in the spring of 2020, as gyms, yoga studios and other exercise centers shut down and Americans sought outdoor activities like biking, a relatively safe form of exercise. In 2021, the sales surge…
In June, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai gave a speech in which she outlined her vision of worker-centered trade, a popular phrase among Biden administration officials. According to Tai: “Build Back Better starts by growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and putting workers at the center of our economic plans…In…
Long-term economic growth is the single most important objective for any nation. As growth economist and Nobel laureate Paul Romer has said: “For a nation, the choices that determine whether income doubles in one generation or two dwarf all other economic policy concerns.” In the United States, real income per capita grew in the 3%-4%…
Goods Deficit Also Sets Monthly Record at $93.2 Billion Department of Commerce figures published this morning show that in June the U.S. reported a trade deficit of $75.7 billion, a new record for U.S. and world history. The deficit was 6.7 percent higher than the May figure, and 49.4 percent worse than the year-ago June…
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) recently released a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of all trade agreements the United States has entered into since 1985. Trade agreement negotiation, passage and implementation has been controversial throughout this time period. The ITC report is significant as the first recognition by a federal government trade agency…
Key Points CPA’s economic modeling of a U.S.-U.K. free trade agreement that cut tariffs to zero between the two countries shows that such an agreement would increase unemployment by more than 2,000 jobs and reduce U.S. GDP by $142 million. This economic model includes for the first time a methodology for estimating job loss due…
Original by CPA Chief Economist Jeff Ferry published in Foreign Policy News Early in June, the Senate passed its signature “China bill,” a wide-ranging piece of legislation intended to counter Beijing’s industrial rise and spur U.S. technological competitiveness. Included in the bill was a reauthorization of the longstanding Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a tariff…