An ‘Economic Imbecile’

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The New York Sun

“A special kind of economic imbecile” is how Donald Trump is being described in an email circulating on the Web. Ordinarily such Internet chatter wouldn’t prompt a pause, but this cable is from a professor at George Mason, Don Boudreaux, who is one of the pithiest wordsmiths since Rashi. An editor of Café Hayek, he is an inveterate writer of letters to the editors of our country’s greatest newspapers, pointing out errors of logic in the reporting of our economic debate. Mr. Boudreaux is famously caustic, and Mr. Trump can take comfort in the fact that he is by no means alone.

Professor Boudreaux’s latest email includes a letter he sent to The Donald responding to the billionaire’s insistence that, as Mr. Boudreaux puts it, “Americans are harmed whenever foreigners take actions that result in us getting more imports in exchange for our exports.” Writes the professor: “I ask that you, with your own money, prove that you really believe the economic principle that lies at the root of your insistence.” If Mr. Trump is “correct that people are impoverished when they pay lower prices, and are enriched when they pay higher prices, then . . .”

Let’s pause here for a moment and savor the trap Mr. Boudreaux has laid for The Donald. Here it is: “. . . then you can easily augment your personal fortune by demanding that the suppliers from whom you purchase the steel, cement, and other materials used to construct Trump buildings raise the prices they charge you for their merchandise. The higher they raise the prices they charge you to carry out your economic affairs, the wealthier you’ll become because you’ll be increasingly reluctant to purchase their offerings.”

Nor do the possibilities end there, Mr. Boudreaux notes. He suggests that Mr. Trump’s logic opens up the prospect that he could lower — even to zero — the prices he charges his customers for hotel rooms and other goods and services. “Just think of the additional wealth that will come your way by your being, as a buyer, dissuaded by high prices from purchasing goods and services from people not named ‘Donald Trump,’ and, as a seller, by the hordes of customers who will demand to consume almost limitless quantities of the wares that you make available at prices of $0.”

Mr. Boudreaux’s description of Mr. Trump reminds us a bit of Mark Twain’s wisecrack about the music of the composer Richard Wagner — that it’s not as bad as it sounds. We’d like to think that Mr. Trump is not so much of an imbecile that he believes some of the things he says. Particularly because protectionism — let alone xenophobia — has never prospered at the polls. The smart thing for Mr. Trump would be to pick up the phone and call Professor Boudreaux. On the substance of the debate, the professor could get Mr. Trump ahead of the competition in a fell swoop.


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