Ivory Tower Economist Tries To School Dilbert’s Scott Adams On Trade… Fails

Today Donald J. Boudreaux, who is Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, wrote an open letter to Dilbert creator Scott Adams. The letter was a rebuttal to Scott disagreeing with Michigan Rep Justin Amash about Trump’s trade policy.
Justin Amash had tweeted out that tariffs will hurt the consumer in higher prices. Scott retorted that the tariffs will not be applied because the threat of applying a tariff on firms who chase cheap foreign labor but then sell that production back to the US consumer they just laid off will disincentivize the firms from leaving in the first place. It was then that Mr. Boudreaux jumped in, stating unequivocally that Scott is wrong and Justin is right.
Boudreaux argues that while he agrees the tariff would actually not be applied it would stifle competition and thus consumers would pay a higher price. Boudreaux seems to imply that low consumer prices are a top priority of trade policy. Below is the main argument within Boudreaux’s open letter to Scott Adams.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 5, 2016.