Breitbart Business Digest: What if We Had Listened to Pat Buchanan?

Patrick J. Buchanan: The Prophet of American Trade Policy

When Pat Buchanan campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1990s, he made tariffs a central pillar of his platform. He warned that unchecked globalization would hollow out American industry, erode the middle class, and leave the nation vulnerable to economic dependence. His message resonated—he won the New Hampshire primary in 1996 and reshaped the conversation within the GOP.

A new working paper released this month asks what would have happened if the country had adopted Buchanan’s ideas sooner .

The answer: the United States would likely be richer, and more industrially balanced, today.

In “Trade Policy and Structural Change,” economists Hayato Kato, Kensuke Suzuki, and Motoaki Takahashi simulate the ef