“Government interventions,” warned celebrated 20th century Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises, “always breed economic dislocations that ‘necessitate' more government interventions.”
Nowhere is this dictum truer than with President Donald Trump's tariffs. His government import taxes have led to higher prices, supply shortages and tariff retaliation by our trading partners — all of which policymakers are attempting to remedy with additional government programs.
Consider that late last month Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) introduced legislation called the Aluminum Pricing Examination Act, which would bring aluminum pricing under the purview of the federal government. Specifically, it would grant the Commodities Futures Trading Commission the statutory authority to conduct oversight of the aluminum market, and grant it “exclusive jurisdiction over the setting of reference prices for aluminum premiums.”
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