News Story of the Day: if Donald Trump supporters didn’t like the big government liberals and the neo-conservatives that have dominated Washington for so many years then they won’t be pleased with the president-elect’s reported cabinet members. So far, all of his picks are Washington insiders who don’t represent liberty values.
By the time Trump is sworn in, you could see the likes of Chris Christie as Attorney General, Mike Huckabee as Secretary of Commerce, Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior, John Bolton as Secretary of State and Rick Scott as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Yikes.
If you have been paying close attention to the Trump campaign then this shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, if you thought things would actually change in Washington with limited government then you’re going to be likely disappointed over the next four years.
Chart of the Day: how did the mainstream media and pollsters get it so wrong on Election Day? This infographic from Visual Capitalist explains it to you:
Illustration of the Day: everyone is offended these days. You could be walking around wearing green and you could be stopped by someone accusing you of cultural appropriation. It has become ridiculous these days. It doesn’t end as you can tell from the plethora of articles and videos of someone whining and moaning about something inconsequential to their lives. As this illustration (courtesy of AEI) suggests:
Quote of the Day: trade has been one of the dominant policy themes of Donald Trump. He wants to renegotiate NAFTA and, presumably, he wants to get rid of the TPP. But it isn’t that he is opposed to trade agreements per se, he just wants to create his own trade pact, one that may include tariffs. Robert Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal does an admirable job laying it out the different types of trade deals in a recent blog post:
There is a spectrum when it comes to trade. There is full free trade. There is crony trade and there are high tariffs and even more protectionist measures.
Crony trade is better than high tariffs and more protectionist measures. Free trade is better than crony trade.
If the U.S. allowed totally open trade, it would raise the standard of living of Americans because we would have more products and services to choose from at cheaper prices. This would occur despite protectionist measures implemented by other countries.
Thus it makes no sense to promote the idea that we should threaten tariffs to force other countries to lower theirs. We are the MF United States if other countries saw that we kept out trade borders totally open and this resulted in better products and services offered here, other countries would catch on pretty quickly or end up in the dark ages when Neanderthals roamed. That would be their problem if they chose such a path.
The idea that because a country limits imports into its country that it causes unemployment here where workers can not find new jobs is the Lump of Labor Fallacy. There are always jobs in a region where markets are free.
Free trade is, of course, better than crony trade but crony trade, though it benefits insiders, is still better than no trade. If a life-saving drug is made by 5 different pharmaceutical companies on an island nation but because of crony deals only one is allowed to sell the drug in the U.S., it is still better for the person whose life it saves versus not having the drug at all, though full free trade would be better because it would allow many firms to compete to provide the drug, which would likely result in the drug being provided at a lower price.
In short, the closer we get to total free trade, the better off we are and there is no situation where it makes sense to threaten tariffs or institute them. Tariffs always lower the standard of living domestically, regardless of what policies other nations adopt.
Video of the Day: you may have already seen this video, but if you haven’t then you should because it’s pretty funny. It was made by the great Paul Joseph Watson, which highlights the various Hillary Clinton supporters crying (perhaps this is better than the violent protests and riots taking place across the United States today). Either way, it’s funny to see people cry over an evil, vile and corrupt human being.
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