To hear U.S. Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Steven Miran tell it, the primary intent of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy is to make the rest of the world “pay up” for the right to live under the yoke of the “U.S. financial dominance” maintained by military might. Miran, the Harvard-trained, Austrian School economist, who is credited with being one of the leading lights behind the policy, has spent much of his career advising speculators on how to make a killing on “the markets.” This past Monday, April 7, he let it all hang out in an address to the Hudson Institute, posted by the White House.
His opening statement was that the United States provides the entire world with two crucial “global public goods:” The first, “a security umbrella which has created the greatest era of peace mankind has ever known.” (!) The second, “the dollar and Treasury securities, reserve assets which make possible the global trading and financial system which has supported the greatest era of prosperity mankind has ever known.” (!)
“Americans have been paying for peace and prosperity not just for themselves, but for non-Americans too,” he complains. “President Trump has made it clear that he will no longer stand for other nations free-riding on our blood, sweat, and tears, whether in national security or trade.”
