Economist John Cochran shares his thoughts on recent tariffs on washing machines, solar panels and the regulatory hurdles of building infrastructure in the US in his recent blog post.
While my sentiments closely align with those in the article, I am willing to concede that the impact of tariffs are more nuanced than purely good vs evil. However, I think creating "optimal tariffs" that precisely balances costs and benefits is impossible and susceptible to cronyism. I think as a whole, we are better off trying to eliminate tariffs than trying to design optimal tariffs.