That is a hotly debated point these days, with Trump supporters saying that tariffs will protect our national security and do much to balance the budget, and at least some Trump opponents saying they do much more harm than good.

In his latest Bastiat’s Window post, economist Robert F. Graboyes offers his thoughts.

Here’s a slice:

Tariffs are to economic growth what a bacon-cheeseburger is to weight loss. You can lose weight in spite of a mega-cheeseburger-a-day habit, but, realistically, you’ll never lose weight because of that habit. Equivalently, economies can experience economic growth in spite of tariffs, but they never experience growth because of tariffs. Various happy factors are currently boosting the U.S. economy sufficiently to overcome the damage done by President Trump’s shambolic tariffs.

Graboyes has previously written much on this topic, and if anyone wants to understand the case against government interference with trade, his posts contain a lot of careful arguments. Alas, from what I have seen of the pro-tariff crowd, they won’t bother with the arguments, but just angrily resort to dodges such as claiming that anyone against Trump’s tariffs is a “market fundamentalist.”

What I’m wondering is if any of Trump’s leftist enemies will learn from the case Graboyes and many others have made and perhaps entertain the thought that government intervention in economic matters is not such a good idea after all.