Why Trump's tariffs won't last
Two administrations tried super-high tariffs; they both got swept away
When the U.S. imposed the highest tariffs in its history nearly 200 years ago, the effects were dramatic.
The “Tariff of Abominations,” passed by Congress and signed by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, contributed to the election of Andrew Jackson that year. It set off a constitutional crisis in the early 1830s when South Carolina asserted a right to nullify federal laws. Only a compromise to reduce the tariff prevented a violent rebellion.
President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” already has touched off the worst market sell-off since Covid, vaporizing more than $6 trillion of value. That is only the beginning of a set of consequences that make it likely Trump’s tariffs will go the way of “The Tariff of Abominations” and the Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930.
Such drastic policy changes contain the seeds of their own destruction — but don’t underestimate the damage that could be caused along the way.
Loving tariffs
Still, it’s not hard to see…
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