Latest news with #WilliamMcKinley
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump's tariffs seek to restore American exceptionalism
In response to duties imposed on foreign goods by the U.S. government, a leading international publication called out the U.S. policy, predicting that political and economic upheaval would follow. That dire prediction — made by The London Standard in 1896 (at that time known as The Standard) — did not quite pan out. Instead, the U.S. economy enjoyed a renaissance, ushering in an era of financial prosperity that has continued to this day. Although today's financial dynamics differ from those of that time, one core principle has remained the same — a fundamental reality that entwines President William McKinley's philosophy with that of President Trump. That is American exceptionalism — the idea that the American people are capable of so much more than what the naysayers believe of them. Since free trade began in earnest during the 1990s with NAFTA, this aspect of U.S. economics became a sort of holy grail for politicians. The allure of cheap goods was deemed too great to tamper with. It wasn't something to be questioned, from the left or the right — so much so, that many people didn't even know that American companies were competing at a steep disadvantage overseas. However, although they may not have known it, many Americans were feeling it. Millions of Americans in flyover regions were hurt by the rapid deindustrialization caused by these agreements. U.S. companies had their growth stunted by unfair trade practices that were being employed against them. And the fact that those practices were in place is indisputable. Economists can perhaps explain away trade deficits as normal economic activity (in some cases), but not trade barriers harming American companies. Charging a tariff ten times what the U.S. charged on cars (China), non-acceptance of U.S. safety standards for automobiles (Japan and South Korea), and the Value Added Tax, in which foreign products were able to retail at a significant discount over their American counterparts, were all part of a systematic squeeze on U.S. companies competing in foreign markets. It was the outcome of other nations taking advantage of American politicians looking the other way. The system may have been working, but it certainly wasn't thriving. As the sole superpower in a rapidly expanding global economy, the past decades represented a chance for the U.S. to corner the market, to solidify its dominance and grow its prosperity. Instead, it satisfied itself with mediocrity, settling for limited growth in exchange for cheap imports. Trump set out to change that — to throw off the shackles of American defeatism, and to recapture the magic of American exceptionalism. He recognized our enormous financial advantage of more than $10 trillion in nominal gross domestic product — and that is only over our closest competitor, China. His business instincts realized that we were squandering one of our greatest national assets, our economic leverage, instead being exploited by friend and foe alike. Free trade had become free for everyone except the U.S. Disrupting a system can come at a cost, and it is fair for there to be a discussion as to how best to do it. But it must be done. Because while we can get by without this, the economy can chug along without this drastic change, that isn't the American way. We didn't win World War II, send a man to the moon and emerge as the world's sole superpower simply by getting by, just by being good enough. We did it by being exceptional. And that should be the standard we continue to strive for. With the first trade deal of this tariff era now taking shape, American exceptionalism appears to be within reach once again. The agreement with the U.K. promises to open new markets to American goods, create a fair playing field for American companies competing in Great Britain, and increase British investment on American shores. This is more than a simple trade pact; it is the first step into a new age of American opportunity and prosperity. As President Trump puts it, 'our best days are yet to come.' Let's hope his words prove true as his trade policies usher in yet another great American century. Menachem Spiegel is an author and yeshiva student. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal's Future View, The Star-Ledger and The Jerusalem Post. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
24-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump's tariffs seek to restore American exceptionalism
In response to duties imposed on foreign goods by the U.S. government, a leading international publication called out the U.S. policy, predicting that political and economic upheaval would follow. That dire prediction — made by The London Standard in 1896 (at that time known as The Standard) — did not quite pan out. Instead, the U.S. economy enjoyed a renaissance, ushering in an era of financial prosperity that has continued to this day. Although today's financial dynamics differ from those of that time, one core principle has remained the same — a fundamental reality that entwines President William McKinley's philosophy with that of President Trump. That is American exceptionalism — the idea that the American people are capable of so much more than what the naysayers believe of them. Since free trade began in earnest during the 1990s with NAFTA, this aspect of U.S. economics became a sort of holy grail for politicians. The allure of cheap goods was deemed too great to tamper with. It wasn't something to be questioned, from the left or the right — so much so, that many people didn't even know that American companies were competing at a steep disadvantage overseas. However, although they may not have known it, many Americans were feeling it. Millions of Americans in flyover regions were hurt by the rapid deindustrialization caused by these agreements. U.S. companies had their growth stunted by unfair trade practices that were being employed against them. And the fact that those practices were in place is indisputable. Economists can perhaps explain away trade deficits as normal economic activity (in some cases), but not trade barriers harming American companies. Charging a tariff ten times what the U.S. charged on cars (China), non-acceptance of U.S. safety standards for automobiles (Japan and South Korea), and the Value Added Tax, in which foreign products were able to retail at a significant discount over their American counterparts, were all part of a systematic squeeze on U.S. companies competing in foreign markets. It was the outcome of other nations taking advantage of American politicians looking the other way. The system may have been working, but it certainly wasn't thriving. As the sole superpower in a rapidly expanding global economy, the past decades represented a chance for the U.S. to corner the market, to solidify its dominance and grow its prosperity. Instead, it satisfied itself with mediocrity, settling for limited growth in exchange for cheap imports. Trump set out to change that — to throw off the shackles of American defeatism, and to recapture the magic of American exceptionalism. He recognized our enormous financial advantage of more than $10 trillion in nominal gross domestic product — and that is only over our closest competitor, China. His business instincts realized that we were squandering one of our greatest national assets, our economic leverage, instead being exploited by friend and foe alike. Free trade had become free for everyone except the U.S. Disrupting a system can come at a cost, and it is fair for there to be a discussion as to how best to do it. But it must be done. Because while we can get by without this, the economy can chug along without this drastic change, that isn't the American way. We didn't win World War II, send a man to the moon and emerge as the world's sole superpower simply by getting by, just by being good enough. We did it by being exceptional. And that should be the standard we continue to strive for. With the first trade deal of this tariff era now taking shape, American exceptionalism appears to be within reach once again. The agreement with the U.K. promises to open new markets to American goods, create a fair playing field for American companies competing in Great Britain, and increase British investment on American shores. This is more than a simple trade pact; it is the first step into a new age of American opportunity and prosperity. As President Trump puts it, 'our best days are yet to come.' Let's hope his words prove true as his trade policies usher in yet another great American century. Menachem Spiegel is an author and yeshiva student. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal's Future View, The Star-Ledger and The Jerusalem Post.
Business Upturn
05-05-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
William McKinley Presidential Silver Medal Available May 12
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The William McKinley Presidential Silver Medal will be available for purchase directly from the United States Mint (Mint) on May 12 at noon ET. McKinley was the Nation's 25th President, serving from March 4, 1897, until his death on September 14, 1901. During his administration, he oversaw the United States' victory in the Spanish-American War. Presidential Silver Medals are 99.9 percent fine silver, with each medal measuring 1.598 inches in diameter. This medal was produced under the authority of 31 U.S.C. § 5111(a)(2), which authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to 'prepare national medal dies and strike national and other medals if it does not interfere with regular minting operations but may not prepare private medal dies.' The Department of the Treasury has a long-standing tradition of honoring each President of the United States with an official bronze medal issued by the Secretary and struck by the Mint. The Mint is now replicating the bronze presidential medal program in 99.9% fine silver. The obverse and reverse designs were created by Charles E. Barber, the 6th Chief Engraver of the Mint. The obverse (heads) depicts a bust of the President with the inscription 'WILLIAM McKINLEY.' The reverse (tails) features the inscriptions 'INAUGURATED PRESIDENT OF∙THE∙UNITED∙STATES∙MAR∙4∙1897,' 'SECOND TERM MAR∙4∙1901,' 'ASSASSINATED SEP∙6∙1901,' and 'DIED SEP∙14∙1901.' Each medal is encapsulated and comes with a certificate of authenticity. The William McKinley Presidential Silver Medal is priced at $90. Orders will be accepted at (product code S825). To view additional medals in this series, visit: Presidential Silver Medals are also available for purchase via the Mint's Product Subscription Program, which works like a magazine subscription. After you subscribe, you will receive the next product released in the series and continue to receive products until you end your enrollment. Visit to learn more. Please visit as your primary source of the most current information on product and service status or call 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468) seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Hearing and speech impaired customers with TTY equipment may order by calling 1-888-321-MINT (6468) Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. From outside the United States, customers can call 001-202-898-6468 Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. About the United States Mint Congress created the United States Mint in 1792, and the Mint became part of the Department of the Treasury in 1873. As the Nation's sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage, the Mint is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the Nation to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint also produces numismatic products, including proof, uncirculated, and commemorative coins; Congressional Gold Medals; silver and bronze medals; and silver and gold bullion coins. Its numismatic programs are self-sustaining and operate at no cost to taxpayers. Note: To ensure that all members of the public have fair and equal access to United States Mint products, the United States Mint will not accept and will not honor orders placed prior to the official on-sale date of May 12, 2025, at noon EDT. The Presidential Silver Medals are also available from the Mint's sales centers at the Philadelphia Mint, 151 N. Independence Mall East, Philadelphia, PA 19106 (on 5th Street between Arch Street and Race Street) Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET; at the Denver Mint, 320 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80204 (on Cherokee Street, between West Colfax Avenue and West 14th Avenue) Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MT; and from the United States Mint Headquarters Coin Store in Washington, D.C.; 801 9th St., NW; Washington, DC 20220 Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Learn more about the United States Mint. Visit and subscribe to the United States Mint YouTube channel to watch videos about the Mint. Subscribe to United States Mint electronic product notifications, news releases, public statements, and the monthly educational newsletter, Lessons That Make Cents . . Follow the United States Mint on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same.
CBC
18-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
What Trump gets wrong about tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump often claims that tariffs introduced in the late 1800s by then-president William McKinley ushered in America's Golden Age, but history reveals a different story. CBC's Eli Glasner breaks down what Trump gets wrong and the lessons he could learn from the past.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump does not understand the true greatness of America. The US must not turn inward
As a general rule, educated people tend to believe in free trade. Uneducated people tend to doubt it. As an educated person myself, and the descendant of 19th-century free-trade campaigners, I am a keen free trader. The educated are often puzzled by the doubts of the uneducated because our central belief is that free trade helps poorer people get richer. Competition lowers costs and increases opportunity for people without capital. Tariffs and other trade barriers empower monopolists, increase scarcity and put up prices. They also hamper new business entrants and featherbed 'them that hath'. Our arguments are strong. But there is a less elevated reason why educated people like free trade: we do well out of it ourselves. We tend to have transferable skills and can move easily between different countries, so we thrive in a flexible labour market. The high immigration that often comes with free-trade economies also helps supply us with cheap labour for menial tasks. Despite being very rich himself, prospering in markets which have been, for the most part, free, President Trump instinctively understands the ordinary people who fear free trade. They feel, with increasing vehemence, that they are doing badly out of it. During his own long life, millions of American workers have declined from being the aristocracy of global labour while he was growing up to the forgotten men (they are, predominantly, male) who once worked in steel mills and car plants, timber and agriculture, and now don't or, if they do, are on pretty much the same real wages as they earned 30 years ago. Since the financial crash of 2008-9 and the artificially low interest rates which rescued the bankers but not them, such workers have grown angrier still. The most important word in the rallying cry 'Make America Great Again' is 'Again'. Trump invokes a glorious past. Once upon a time in America, a great nation could be forged by a pioneer people. In its original meaning, a pioneer is someone who digs. The hands of workers who dug and built and chopped down the forests made the America he conjures up. His message is that he is on their side. Hence the appeal of tariffs. Although anti-colonial, America is nevertheless a sort of empire – one of the people, not the ruling class. Its territory expanded throughout the 19th century, through purchase and conquest. This echoes today in Trump's attitude to Canada, Mexico and Panama and his coveting of Greenland. The myth, which was largely true, was that this work was achieved by a great nation alone without the co-operation of other countries. President Trump is no historian, but he loves to summon up the shade of his Republican predecessor, William McKinley, who, as a congressman in 1890, introduced punitive tariffs. Study the McKinley Act's motives – part protection, part threat – and you can see them embodied in Trump today. In a passage in his inauguration speech not much commented on over here, Trump framed his protectionism as a tax cut: 'Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.' In the United States, what we call HMRC is called the Internal Revenue Service. Trump promised what he called the 'External Revenue Service'. You do not need much imagination to see why this would be a popular idea with tens of millions of American voters. In the executive orders that the president promulgated on Wednesday, he said that America's goods trade deficits 'constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.' Therefore: 'I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to this threat.' Such a declaration enables him to bypass Congress, but it also implies less a permanent change of policy than a showdown with the rest of the world. By never mentioning American dominance in services, he fosters a powerful illusion that the deficit in goods, a far smaller proportion of the US economy, is a life-threatening crisis. He says it is like a patient coming through a perilous operation; in fact, it is more like a chronic but potentially curable condition for which doctors have prescribed the wrong treatment. I share the conventional view that the Trump measures are bad for the world and therefore, by a logic to which Mr Trump is blind, ultimately bad for America. If you force people to pay more for lots of things, they will get poorer. If they can obtain those things from other sources, they will. In the process, mutually beneficial relationships between America and her long-standing allies will be badly strained. Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said Trump's tariffs 'are not the action of a friend'. But the critics who see Trump's decision as crazy are mistaken. It fits with his politics, and his base is so loyal to him that if it does all go wrong, they will probably follow him in directing the blame at anyone but himself. In the meantime, it is at least possible that Trump's calculation will pay off. He thinks America is still so powerful that many foreign companies will have to reshore there, using it as the tariff equivalent of a tax haven. A few weeks ago, TSMC, Taiwan's huge semi-conductor manufacturer, announced what was billed as the biggest single foreign investment ever made in America – $100 billion for new factories in Texas. The Taiwanese would probably rather keep their industry concentrated at home, but they decided, perhaps mistakenly, that the investment was the necessary price for American protection from China. On Thursday, here in Britain, JCB announced that they were doubling the size of their US plant, also in Texas. There will be much more of this. As so often with Trump, one confronts the unsettling puzzle that he is a dishonest man who nevertheless tells a good many truths. The truth here is that the world trading system which he attacks is indeed not nearly as fair as it claims; that China, once it got inside, perverted it; and that the European Union is more of a protectionist trade bloc than a beacon of free trade, and is becoming more so with its carbon border tariffs in which Britain foolishly wants to participate. Trump's attack on all this closely resembles his attack on Nato and the defence of Ukraine: he is exposing something rotten, but his cure is worse than the disease. Although Britain triumphed economically after repealing the Corn Laws in 1846, we have sometimes been tempted towards tariffs, and for similar reasons. At the turn of the previous century, Joe Chamberlain called for tariffs 'to secure the masses of the industrial population … employment at fair wages'. He wanted to save our declining Empire as a means to that end. Luckily, our status as a small, trading island made protection less attractive to us than it must seem in the vast American continent. But in the end, I suspect, Trump will fail because he too has the wrong vision of arresting his country's decline. So strong is his sense of grievance, that he does not understand that the greatness of America today lies in the fact that it is, in the business parlance he understands, the greatest 'global brand' in history. It will not remain so if it turns in upon itself and treats its allies as enemies. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
