By Mohammad Ali Haqshenas
The US Supreme Court’s Friday ruling to overturn tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump has intensified scrutiny of a policy that was flawed long before facing legal challenges, says an American economist.
In an interview with the Press TV website, Charles N. Steele, Associate Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College, US, who also serves as Director of the Hutchison Center for Commerce and Freedom, said Americans have "paid the lion's share of the costs."
“It seems quite clear that Americans have paid the lion's share of the costs,” Steele said, adding that is why he had previously described Trump’s tariff strategy as an “unforced error” and “a big mistake.”
Steele does not separate the Supreme Court’s legal ruling from the underlying economics. The judges, he noted, were not judging whether tariffs work, but whether the president had the authority to impose them under the statute he chose.
“What makes tariffs an error,” Steele said, “is that they have negative consequences for the economy and people's incomes.”
Those consequences, he noted, were predictable, citing a body of empirical research showing that the burden of the tariffs fell overwhelmingly on Americans rather than on foreign exporters.
“Studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Kiel Institute in Germany, and JP Morgan,” Steele said, “all find that about 90% of the economic cost of Mr. Trump’s tariffs is borne by Americans.”
For Steele, that evidence—not the Court’s decision—is what ultimately confirms his criticism. “That is what confirms my view that the tariffs are an unforced error and a big mistake,” he said.....more below
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warns the enemies that any act of aggression against the Islamic Republic will not go unanswered.
In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC issued a “stern warning” to the enemies after US forces launched strikes against the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Following the US military attack on a point on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport with aerial projectiles, the IRGC carried out new strikes targeting the US air base from which the attack originated in the wee hours of Thursday, it added.
“This response is a serious warning to the enemy that they should know the act of aggression will not go unanswered,” the IRGC emphasized.
The elite military force warned of a “more decisive” response if the enemy repeated any act of aggression.
It also said the responsibility for the consequences of any IRGC response lies with the aggressor.
The statement comes after the IRGC Navy on Thursday forced an American tanker to turn back. The tanker ...
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
