The candidate to become President Donald Trump's chief economist, Stephen Miran, defended the decision to move forward with tariffs on some U.S. trading partners. In an appearance before the Senate Banking Committee last Thursday, Miran expressed that the country can maintain a 'fabulous economy' even with high taxes.
Miran, appointed by Trump to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, argued that throughout U.S. economic history there have been periods of high tariffs that coincided with extraordinary success. He emphasized that there is no evidence in historical records that it is impossible to have a prosperous economy with high tariffs.
In his remarks, Miran also mentioned the influence of the tariffs imposed by Trump on China in Tim Cook's decision, Apple's CEO, to allocate $500 billion to projects in U.S. territory. He stated that the president's policies have been decisive for this type of announcements.
The candidate for chief economist of the White House said that Trump's tariff policies are generating incentives for companies like Apple to invest in the United States. Additionally, they are pressuring other countries to make concessions on national security and trade issues, even as a preventive measure, before concrete threats arise.
Miran pointed out that economists' concerns about tariffs stem from a peculiarity in the methodology of model calculation. He commented that a similar situation has not occurred in recent decades and supported Trump's inclination toward high tariff policies, citing the example of William McKinley and his predecessors in the last century.
In his testimony, Miran questioned economic models suggesting that trade deficits will balance to zero in the long term, stating that there is something wrong with the premises on which these models are based.
