Beware the words ‘liberty’ and ‘liberation.’ There are no end of evils committed in their names.
Wednesday, according to Donald Trump, will be America’s Liberation Day, as citizens are freed from the yoke of free-ish trade. That is the day that importers who have been showering US consumers with cheap goods will be slapped with punitive tariffs.
So far, the only thing that US consumers appear to have been liberated from is their money. Stock markets in the US and around the world have suffered a slide as markets digest the implications. They do not like what they foresee, which is the prospect of the golden years of globalisation going into reverse. While the President looks forward to jobs returning to America as native producers find themselves better able to compete, and overseas manufacturers are incentivised to open factories in the US to supply that market, history points to negative consequences overall.
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