PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HAS SAID HE WANTS TO return the United States to a “golden age” of manufacturing and is trying to force the issue for many industries by slapping high tariffs on foreign products.
However, their implementation, marked by abrupt shifts, pauses and fluctuations in levies, has sparked instability across the U.S. economy, as well as rattled global markets and longstanding partnerships.
To some, like former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the initial disruption is the path to a “robust,” “hegemon-like,” “reindustrialized” America—one that promises to put tens of thousands back to work in well-paying manufacturing jobs.
Others, like Colin Grabow, associate director at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, argue the entire premise of reshoring and reindustrialization is flawed, as American manufacturing…
