It ’s World Trade Week…and (Apparently) the Start of the “Silly Season” in Washington

Scott Lincicome and Alfredo Carrillo ObregonIt ’s a well‐​known fact in the nation’s capital that politicians’ rhetoric gets progressively detached from reality as a November election approaches. During a race’s final few months, inconvenient things like “facts” and “logic” tend to get thrown out the window as candidates g et desperate for votes.On trade, at least, it seems President Biden has kicked off the 2024 “silly season” more than a year early.In particular, Biden ’s recent proclamation announcingWorld Trade Week 2023 (and implicitly justifying his tariff ‐ and subsidy‐​heavy “worker‐​centric” trade policy) stated that, “For decades, the middle class and thriving towns across America were hollowed out as good‐​paying jobs moved overseas and factories at home closed down.” Were this claim in the middle of an early‐​autumn stu mp speech—from Biden or former President Trump—we may have given it a pass. But since the claim comes in the middle of a World Trade Week proclamation from the sitting president of the United States, we feel compelled to correct the record.First, the only “hollowing out” of the American middle class over the last few decades has been due to U.S. households movingup the income ladder, not down. For example, Census Bureau data show that between 1990 and 2019 —the era of “peak globalization”—the share of middle‐ and low‐​income U.S. households (adjusted for inflation) have...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs