Good morning:
This week, Manhattan Institute scholars responded to the ongoing fallout from President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day.” With so much uncertainty swirling, MI scholars put today’s tariff turbulence in perspective.
MI president Reihan Salam and MI fellow Charles Fain Lehman wrote in The Atlantic how President Trump’s newly imposed tariff regime and the resulting market instability isn’t merely making the rich uncomfortable, it may make economic success and the fulfillment of the American dream more unlikely for wealth-creating small business owners and the aspirant middle-class.
Meanwhile, where Americans will feel a prick, much of the world will suffer from a deep gash. In Bloomberg, senior fellow Allison Schrager explained that the costs of tariffs will not be felt equally. Although the costs to American consumers may not be as high as feared, such “high tariffs will be catastrophic for developing countries that depend on exports.”
And, in City Journal, economist Brian Albrecht takes the historical view of tariffs. While exceptionally high tariffs are not unusual in American history, Albrecht argues that they were incidental to industrialization in the U.S., and likely harmful to it.
Manhattan Institute scholars saw this tariff conflict coming. In January, MI director of research Judge Glock wrote for The Free Press about how tariffs enable bureaucrats and lobbyists to manipulate trade policy to their own benefit. And Reihan Salam warned in The Atlantic back in 2018 that President Trump’s commitment to protectionism exposes a contradiction at the heart of economic nationalism. Both these columns are included in the newsletter below.
Elsewhere at the institute, investigative reporter Christina Buttons’s new research report challenges the activist-driven movement against youth residential treatment centers as a resource for children suffering from severe mental health challenges. She debunks the most serious criticisms of residential treatment facilities and proposes policy solutions to preserve and improve them.
In the New York Post, MI fellow Rafael A. Mangual praises NYPD’s declining crime statistics as a sign that things are finally trending in the right direction but warns that success is fragile and makes the coming mayoral race all the more important.
In a new video highlighting New York’s failed discovery reform, MI’s director of policing and public safety, Hannah E. Meyers breaks down why the law needs to be amended. Gov. Kathy Hochul has that opportunity during the ongoing budget negotiations, but Meyers recommends that real reform happen through the normal legislative process.
Lastly, in City Journal, fellow Colin Wright reflects on his testimony before the Colorado legislature in opposition to a bill that would have required death certificates to reflect decedents’ subjective “gender identity” rather than biological sex. The bill passed the legislature and awaits the governor’s signature. But Colorado isn’t finished. Now, a new bill would make not using a child’s preferred name or pronouns a factor in child-custody disputes. Children in Colorado—and their parents—deserve better.
Continue reading for all these insights and more.
Kelsey Bloom
Editorial Director
