An article in yesterday’s National Review also endorsed trade restrictions to sanction China’s ‘bad behavior’ on currency policy.
Maybe someone with more economic knowledge can confirm or deny this, but it seems to me that although China’s monetary policy might hurt uncompetitive U.S. producers, it helps U.S. consumers by lowering prices on goods we buy.
Two questions: First, what is the value of the industries that are going overseas – if they are on the way out anyway, can protectionism save them? Second, have sanctions ever changed behavior before? I think the answer to at least the second question is no.
