Debatable: Trump’s ‘Wall Street vs. Main Street’ argument for tariffs

Oren Cass, the founder and chief economist of conservative think tank American Compass, argues that globalization and the cheaper goods it’s brought to the US hasn’t helped Main Street flourish:

“The American embrace of globalization and free trade — even with China — assumed that whatever benefited Wall Street would also benefit America. More access to foreign markets, offshoring production in search of cheap labor, and moving investment to fast-growing developing economies were taken as important ends unto themselves because… well, in hindsight, it’s not clear why.

“Economists seemed to equate higher profits and cheaper stuff with human flourishing, regardless of what happened to American workers and their communities. As Club for Growth founder Steve Moore once told me, ‘Cheap labor leads to a booming stock market? That benefits everyone.’ But that’s not true. It benefits the people whose well-being depends on stock prices, at the expense of those dependent on a family-supporting wage.

“Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse that tradeoff and prioritize domestic investment in American workers has been received poorly on Wall Street. Also unsurprisingly, economists like former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — who clamored most loudlyfor the wrong course — are continuing to equate the market response with the national interest. But if Trump succeeds in rebalancing economic policy in favor of workers and their communities, he will have done the nation a great service. Something tells me the shareholders will be just fine.”