Tariffs Are Bad

Update 12 November - Did I actually write the post below? Tariffs are not always bad, I have to post a piece on this, in summary if a tariff protects traditional culture (not bad or outdated practices) then the tariff is good

UT Diary

We pay our military to fight Islamofacism, and we pay the Middle East to fund terrorism. How we can stop terrorism and dictatorships: stop buying oil.

This is in response to an Op/Ed by Thomas Friedman. He makes a good argument that libertarians understand - tariffs are a BAD thing. Mankiw seems to agree.

From the Op/Ed

Thanks to pressure from Midwest farmers and agribusinesses, who want to protect the U.S. corn ethanol industry from competition from Brazilian sugar ethanol, we have imposed a stiff tariff to keep it out. We do this even though Brazilian sugar ethanol provides eight times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it, while American corn ethanol provides only 1.3 times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it. We do this even though sugar ethanol reduces greenhouses gases more than corn ethanol. And we do this even though sugar cane ethanol can easily be grown in poor tropical countries in Africa or the Caribbean, and could actually help alleviate their poverty.