The economy is moving from growth to contraction, as Thursday’s 0.9% decline in GDP tells us. The debate over whether we are in a recession today is mostly pundits rehearsing their political messages for television, with the November election looming. We are almost certain to be in recession by year-end or early next year. I’m…
U.S. market share in the solar industry has increased since solar tariffs were enacted.
This article is an expanded version of testimony delivered by Mr. Ferry to the U.S. International Trade Commission on July 22, 2022. The Section 232 steel tariffs have benefited the U.S. steel industry and its workforce American steelworkers earned an average of $117,200 last year, making steel one of the best-paying industrial sectors in…
Corporate profits grew by double and sometimes triple digits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Worker wages did not.
President Biden’s Executive Order to waive solar tariffs on Southeast Asia effectively puts an existing trade case against those countries on hold.
Press reports say that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is arguing for repealing a broad set of U.S. tariffs, allegedly as a way to fight inflation. Her argument is said to rely on a set of reports[1] published in March by the Peterson Institute that claimed that cutting tariffs would cut 1.3 percentage points off the…
For years, mainstream politicians and economists have pooh-poohed America’s huge and growing trade deficits and tried to argue they don’t matter. In the first quarter of 2022, those commentators got a wake-up call from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. On April 28, the BEA issued a press release pointing out that U.S. gross domestic product…
By Amanda Mayoral Summary Global supply-chain crises, over-dependence on foreign production and government stimulus best explain the current inflation problem. Policy makers should learn from current crises and enact policies to reduce our strong dependence on unreliable foreign suppliers. Tariffs can cause a one-time rise in prices, but they don’t cause persistent month-after-month…
Thirty years ago, Clint Eastwood held a gun to his rival’s head and asked the question: “Do you feel lucky, punk?” That is what the Chinese solar manufacturers are doing today, with President Biden at the other end of that Magnum 44 six-shooter. On March 28th, Biden’s Commerce Department decided to pursue an anti-circumvention case…
P&O Ferries is the largest operator of ferryboats between the British Isles and the European Continent, a $1.1 billion company carrying 10 million passengers a year. Two weeks ago, on March 24, P&O shocked its 800 employees by firing all of them. But it was less what it did than how it did it. On…
