When someone states — as some people are now stating — that tariffs are ‘bad economics’, it’s easy to be confused by the grammatical structure.
‘Economics’ is, by definition, a field of study dominated by college professors, government bureaucrats, and graduate students hoping to become college professors.
A field of study, itself, cannot logically be ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s just a field of study. The people working in the field can be bad — and often are. But an entire field of study can’t be classified as ‘bad’.
Nevertheless, the National Retail Federation posted a YouTube video, back during President Trump’s first term in office, titled:
Tariffs are B-A-D Economics.
What they mean, of course, is not that tariffs are bad “economics” but rather, that tariffs are bad “economic policy.”
Government policies can be B-A-D, and often are. Especially recently. And what the noted professor in the National Retail Federation video was discussing, with his out-to-lunch class, was not “economics” but rather “economic policies”.
You would think a professor would know better. Especially this particular professor.
Ben Stein.
Many of us were introduced to this professor when we watched the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Most of us didn’t know, in 1986, that Ben Stein was an actual economics professor and author, and a former advisor to Richard Nixon.
Professor Stein was talking about tariffs in 1986, and he was still talking about tariff’s 35 years later. Thankfully.
And he’s not the only one talking about tariffs. Or about Ferris Bueller, for that matter.
In his remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago last month, Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell made a passing reference to Ferris Bueller.
“As that great Chicagoan Ferris Bueller once noted, ‘Life moves pretty fast.’ For the time being, we are well-positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance.”
We can assume, by referencing Ferris Bueller, that Mr. Powell wanted us to recall Ben Stein’s timely advice.
The YouTube clip of Ben Stein teaching his (boring) economics lesson in Ferris Bueller went viral after President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2.
This viral clip came to my attention after reading last week’s ‘Intel from the Ivory Tower’ column by Professor John Tures here in the Daily Post, wherein he discussed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, passed by the U.S Congress in 1929. In Professor Tures’ opinion, Smoot-Hawley was a primary cause of the Great Depression, and led to World War II.
In the Ferris Bueller movie, Professor Stein calls it “Hawley-Smoot”. Professor Tures calls it “Smoot-Hawley”.
Economists don’t always agree, apparently.
But they can agree on a few things. On April 18, a group of 25 noted economists published the “Trade and Tariffs Declaration: A Statement on the Principles of American Prosperity”, and invited other economists to sign the Declaration. The statement says, in part:
The window to reverse these incoherent and damaging policies is closing. We remain hopeful, however, that sound economic principles, empirical evidence, and the warnings of history will prevail over the protectionist mythologies of the moment.
A number of additional professors and assistant professors, and other people who like signing declarations, subsequently attached their name. When I did a screen grab of the Declaration home page, 1788 people had endorsed the statement. (I didn’t see Ben Stein’s name in the list of signers.)
I found this to be a tantalizing number, because in the year 1788 — on June 21, to be exact — New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and the federal government was officially off and running.
An economics lesson can be boring. But that’s only because economics professors can be boring. Economics itself is one of the most interesting fields of study on the planet, due to the fact that it’s a valiant but ultimately fruitless attempt to explain and quantify the financial behavior of human beings, something that can never be successfully explained or quantified.
No one will ever understand when, where, or why people choose to spend money. A painful lesson I learned from being married.
I don’t know if President Trump was a fan of Ferris Bueller back in 1986. I hear he’s not currently a fan of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. And probably not a big fan of Ben Stein, or the National Retail Federation either.
As I said already, government policies can be B-A-D. Smoot-Hawley (or Hawley-Smoot) was B-A-D. Pretty much everyone knows that, 95 years later.
God help us if we have to wait 95 years to learn that the current White House policies as B-A-D.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.