Trumpism, Stalinism and the tariff debate

Do tariffs — taxes on imports — raise prices for U.S. consumers? There’s really no debate on the subject.

I don’t mean that everyone agrees. Rather, there are two distinct groups that aren’t talking to each other, each of which is more or less unified in its views. Almost all economists agree that taxes on imports are, in fact, passed on to consumers. Why? Because that’s what the evidence says and it’s very hard to come up with an alternative story.

On the other hand, Trump loyalists — which these days means almost the entire Republican Party — insist as a group that foreigners, not American consumers, pay taxes on imports. Why? Because Donald Trump says so. And they don’t even try to engage with economists who disagree.