There are two clear and present dangers to liberty. One is known as the Left, and the other is the Right. They seek to use government to mold society into a form they seek, rather than the form that liberty achieves if society is left on its own.
Today's tariff policy relies on the fanciful idea that politicians can pull the right levers to make the economy more efficient or more just. As always, the idea is based on fantasy.
Governments love to use war analogies, framing themselves as the heroes fighting the bad guys. But when it comes to trade wars, governments are the bad guys, and individuals are the victims.
State intervention and a crushing fiscal policy made the whole empire groan under the yoke; more than once, both poor men and rich prayed that the barbarians would deliver them from it.
