In this episode of Logic Dictate: Hot Topics, host Steve Gibson breaks down two recent Wall Street Journal articles on global trade, China’s export surge, and the growing debate over tariffs. Challenging the argument that tariffs make America “isolationist,” Gibson explains why fair trade matters more than so-called free trade—especially when other nations impose tariffs and non-tariff barriers on U.S. goods. This episode explores China’s export machine, domestic production, job growth, inflation, and why reciprocal trade policies are central to the Trump administration’s economic philosophy.
Welcome back to Logic Dictate: Hot Topics. I’m your host, Steve Gibson.
Today, we’re diving into global trade, tariffs, and a debate that’s being framed—incorrectly, in my view—as “free trade versus isolationism.” Two recent Wall Street Journal articles sparked this conversation: one on China increasing exports despite declining trade with the U.S., and another arguing that tariffs are bad policy because they supposedly isolate America from the global economy.
I want to be very clear about this: free trade that isn’t fair isn’t free at all. And the idea that the United States should simply absorb tariffs and non-tariff barriers from other countries without responding is not sound economic policy—it’s economic self-harm.
If tariffs are so bad, why do nearly every major trading nation use them?
And if “free trade” means other countries can block our exports while flooding our markets with theirs—why should the United States be the only country playing by those rules
In this episode, I explain why fair trade—not blind free trade—is the real path to job growth, domestic production, lower inflation, and long-term economic strength, and why responding to China’s export machine isn’t isolationism—it’s common sense.
You can explore this economic philosophy in greater depth in Logic’s Dictate, a sci-fi political thriller that examines global power, trade, and policy through a sharp, analytical lens.
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