Noah Smith, Columnist

Don't Bet On a Crash From a Trump Trade War

Some restrictions on imports from China would do little harm. There's even a chance they could help a bit.

November 21, 2016 at 5:01 AM UTC

Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

Less might mean more.
Photographer: Rick Friedman/corbis/getty images

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Talk of war is in the air -- trade war!

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to label China a currency manipulator, and has floated the idea of imposing large tariffs on Chinese imports. This sort of policy is considered beyond the pale in mainstream economics and media circles. It is subjected to epithets like “protectionism” and “mercantilism.” Almost everyone says it’s a bad idea.