Tariffs, Chickens and White Reasoning

NOTE: If you don't have time to read the full article, you can access the summary at the end. One of the most significant economic news stories of the year (through April 2025) has been the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on a large number of countries, especially China. However, as media-driven as these actions by the current United States government may seem, they are just another piece of the economic dominoes that have been in the making for decades. Tariffs The tariffs in question are taxes on goods imported into the United States, which de facto make it unviable for US importers to purchase goods at low prices, while leaving many companies around the world with overcapacity due to the loss of their largest export market. In return, several countries have imposed tariffs on US products or even banned their imports. This is already generating a trade rebalancing and a weakening of logistics and production networks globally, requiring that areas that previousl...