I was asked to distill a previous post about tariffs into something more accessible to the general public. The resulting article ended up being run on CNN Digital as an opinion piece:

In retaliation for unfair trade practices and the theft of American innovations and ideas, the US Trade Representative’s office is imposing a 25% tariff on a broad range of goods imported from China.

But these tariffs won’t help American workers. Instead, they will encourage American companies to push ideas and production overseas by raising the cost of raw materials without penalizing the import of finished goods.
[…]
Imagine a bakery located in the US. It uses imported flour, sugar and cacao to make delectable cakes based on a closely-guarded secret family recipe handed down for generations, and it employs dozens of bakers to do this. Now suppose a bakery in China has tried to copy the recipe…

The article uses a bakery as an analogy to explain the trade war situation, as well as thinking through why trade deficits are OK through the notion that buying a T-shirt at a store creates a “trade deficit” between you and the store, but in the end that trade deficit is actually quite helpful to you. You can read the full article on CNN Digital.

I had also prepared a short infographic to accompany the article, which wasn’t picked up by CNN, but you can enjoy it here.