Tariffs must be phased in gradually to prevent market shocks. If you tell me that there will be a protective tariff in place five years from now when I'm done raising capital and building my plant, I will invest, and supply will be available to meet the demand for goods once supplied by foreign sources. In the meantime, foreign sources can find other markets. China, particularly, needs a Fordist model with better paid workers consuming their own outputs. So do most of the low-wage economies.

Above all, the US needs strategic self-sufficiency entirely unrelated to jobs and revenues. We must make our own steel and chips and extract our own rare earths. But there is no reason to impose harsh tariffs before we are tooled up to replace the foreign sources.

All of this can be negotiated with our trading partners. Maybe Trump's bluster is just how he starts a negotiation. If so, he will be doing the right thing. It is a very sad commentary on our politics that only so despicable a human being as Trump has the vision and balls to make change. You don't have to be an asshole to be a visionary, but, apparently, you do have to be one to get elected. Yikes.