{"id":64658,"date":"2025-02-01T18:24:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T23:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=64658"},"modified":"2025-02-01T18:24:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T23:24:38","slug":"paul-krugmans-departure-left-a-huge-hole-in-the-nyt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=64658","title":{"rendered":"Paul Krugman’s departure left a huge hole in the NYT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fortunately for those of us who have a slippery grasp of worldwide economics but know it’s important to understand it, Paul Krugman is now publishing what he wants to say, how he wants to say it and when he wants to say it on Substack.<\/a> You can sign up for different versions; a yearly subscription is $70 but I selected a starter version: some free essays in my e-mailbox, which arrive virtually every day.<\/p>\n

Good thing because…tariffs? Geez did I need Krugman to verify my inner sense that they are stupid and crazy.<\/p>\n

I’ve pulled some choice selections from Krugman’s exegesis on these things called tariffs (the title is “The End of America”) just in case you’ve got a hole in your heart where Paul Krugman’s Times columns used to be. I don’t think he’ll mind. (I’ve bolded a couple of things that are Pure Krugman — everything I love him for, aside from his unique gift at explaining inexplicable things to me.)<\/p>\n

\u2208<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been saying for a while that markets were far too complacent about Trump\u2019s threat to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, believing that he wouldn\u2019t follow through because it\u2019s such a stupid, self-destructive idea.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But yeah, Trump did the stupid thing. Here’s an excerpt from Krugman’s excerpt of the NYT report from the White House’s new, very blonde and expectedly feeble press secretary:<\/p>\n

Ms. Leavitt said the president had chosen to impose tariffs because the three countries \u201chave all enabled illegal drugs to pour into America.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of fentanyl that has been seized at the southern border in the last few years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so the president is intent on doing this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to Krugman:<\/p>\n

I think you have to see \u201cfentanyl\u201d in this context as the equivalent of \u201cweapons of mass destruction” in the runup to the invasion of Iraq<\/strong>. It\u2019s not the real reason; Canada isn\u2019t even a major source of fentanyl<\/a>. It\u2019s just a plausible-sounding reason for a president to do what he wanted to do for other reasons \u2014 George W. Bush wanted a splendid little war, Donald Trump just wants to impose tariffs and assert dominance.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Also, although I\u2019m not sure such things matter anymore, what\u2019s the legal basis for these tariffs? U.S. trade law gives the president huge discretion to impose tariffs, but only for a specific set of reasons<\/strong>: economic injury from import surges (Section 201), national security (Section 232), unfair foreign competition (Section 301), dumping \u2014 sales below costs. Drug smuggling, especially imaginary drug smuggling, isn\u2019t on the list.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The president can impose tariffs much more broadly if he declares a national economic emergency<\/a>. But has he done that? Does 2.6 percent inflation<\/a> and 4.1 percent unemployment<\/a> sound like an economic emergency to you? And even if Trump gets around to declaring an economic emergency, what does fentanyl have to do with it?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, there\u2019s a real possibility that Trump\u2019s new tariffs will face a court challenge, and that he will lose. I\u2019m not an expert on trade law, but I do know a bit, and this looks flatly illegal to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

But even if these tariffs are blocked, or Trump finds some way to declare victory and call them off, the damage will be immense.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I wrote the other day<\/a>, in the three decades since NAFTA went into effect, North American manufacturing has evolved into a highly integrated system whose products \u2014 autos in particular, but manufactured goods more broadly \u2014 typically contain components from all three members of the pact, which may be shipped across the borders multiple times. Manufacturers developed this system not just because tariffs were low or zero, but because they thought they had a guarantee that tariffs would stay low.<\/em><\/p>\n

One way of saying this is that until just the other day there was really no such thing as U.S. manufacturing, Canadian manufacturing or Mexican manufacturing, just North American manufacturing \u2014 a highly efficient, mutually beneficial system that sprawled across the three nations\u2019 borders.<\/em><\/p>\n

But now we have a U.S. president saying that a duly negotiated and signed trade pact isn\u2019t worth the paper it was printed on \u2014 that he can impose high tariffs on the other signatories whenever he feels like it. And even if the tariffs go away, the private sector will know that they can always come back; the credibility of this trade agreement, or any future trade agreement, will be lost. So North American manufacturing will disintegrate \u2014 that is, dis-integrate \u2014 reverting to inefficient, fragmented national industries.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hence my title, \u201cThe end of North America.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And to think that many people imagined that Trump would be good for business.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, gee. I seem to have “excerpted” and bolded quite a lot. Do me a favor and sign up for his newsletter so I don’t have to do this again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortunately for those of us who have a slippery grasp of worldwide economics but know it’s important to understand it, Paul Krugman is now publishing what he wants to say, how he wants to say it and when he wants … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8898,5929,8679,9743,6737,11152,1095,7934,1175,2902],"tags":[2704,3897,11214,11215,1085,11212,7395,11213],"class_list":["post-64658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism","category-american-fascism","category-government","category-journalism","category-judiciary","category-maga","category-politics","category-propaganda","category-the-facts-of-life","category-trump-stuff","tag-fentanyl","tag-nafta","tag-north-american-manufacturing","tag-north-american-trade-pack","tag-paul-krugman","tag-paul-krugman-substack","tag-substack","tag-trumps-tariffs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t