Tariffs, Trade & American Jobs with Ambassador Jamieson Greer | PoliticIt Podcast

I always tell Senator Johnson, he's a real economist.

He taught at the university level for many years.

He really does know his stuff.

I'm a guy with a bachelor's degree, which does not make me an economist.

But over the years, and I haven't been as active or as vocal, of course, I didn't have the platform of a Donald Trump, but I've been an observer for a long time.

I'm maybe not quite his age, but I've been around a bit.

And I've kind of watched the hollowing out of the United States, especially the heartland, the manufacturing part of this country over the years.

And because I have an economics degree, I'm familiar with the neoclassical arguments for free trade and, you know, Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations.

And then I love Milton Friedman.

You know, he's one of my personal heroes.

It seems to me that free trade can't exist in a vacuum.

And that too often, what these guys call free trade, it's kind of an ivory tower position.

And I've thought about it and I've had increasing disquiet over years.

And what's kind of funny is I was waiting for a long time for somebody to come along and I had on these issues and to begin to reverse the slide because I observed that there's economic good and then there's non-economic good.

And we all know the old saying about money doesn't care whose pocket it's in.

Well, capital doesn't care where it's invested or where it grows.

But a nation should care about it.

And we've seen the devastation in our heartland in many parts of America for decades now, as the world has become more globalized and trade has become more quote unquote free.

And Carson tells me he's expropriated an old line of mine, and I'm happy for him to do it.

But people would say they'd be talking about free trade.

And my response would be, sounds great.

We ought to try that sometime.

Right.

Listen, I've got two words for you, Dave.

You're hired.