David Brooks on Tariffs: We Can’t Become a Great Nation by Building Walls Around Ourselves, Your Model There Is North Korea

EXCERPT:

BROOKS: “You don’t bring back jobs by crushing international exchange. When you look at the countries that have flourished in the world through human history, you go back to Venice in the Renaissance, you go back to Amsterdam in the 16th century, you go back to Britain in the 19th century, you go back to America in the 20th century. What have they all had in common? They were crossroads nations. They were nations not only of trade and productivity, but exchange of ideas, exchange of people. And so they were places where the whole world wanted to — send their best people and their best goods and their best ideas. And out of that dynamism, greatness resulted. And the idea that we can become a great nation by building walls around ourselves — well, your model there is North Korea, and it’s not a very persuasive model.”