Tariff Wars: Shooting One Foot to Strengthen the Other

A prolonged tariff war to “protect” domestic businesses cripples an economy as effectively as shooting oneself in one foot to strengthen the other. Yes, you’ll learn to limp forward, but at what cost?

In economics, this is more than stagnation—it’s growth deliberately bent backward. The economy, like the body, first adapts but eventually rebels. Joints tire (supply chains fall apart), balance falters (investor confidence wavers), crutches provide relief (public spending becomes a matter of political survival), and the mind eventually starts to call limping walking (the weakened economy forgets how to compete and works only as long as it can rely on public assistance and additional protections). The economy spirals down into a recession by design—collapse engineered not by external shocks, but by the cumulative strain of unnatural policy. …

Source: Forbes