Iceberg, right ahead

A Trumpian "transition period" for the economy is a risky leap in the dark

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

A senior banker said he “almost went down on my knees to beg” the president to stop the tariffs. One aide “fought like mad” to kill the protectionist duties.

More than 1,000 economists warned that boosting tariffs would “raise the cost of living and injure the great majority of our citizens.” They predicted harm to farmers, to investors and to job seekers in many industries. Moreover, “a tariff war does not furnish good soil for the growth of world peace,” wrote the economists.

Yet the backers of the tariff promised a “renewed era of prosperity.” The president listened to them, not the critics. He put the tariffs into effect.

This debate over tariffs wasn’t the one playing out today under President Donald Trump, but the one that preceded the signing of the infamous Hawley-Smoot tariff by President Herbert Hoover 95 years ago.

And while the world economy has changed dramatically in the past century, many economists predict that Trump’s chaotic march toward h…