Manufacturing Dilemma: Should We Protect the U.S. Steel Industry from Cheap Imports?

Former JPMorgan Chase Global Chief Economist & Ph.D. in Economics

In 2023, the U.S. employed 65k steel workers that benefited from tariffs/protections on imported steel.  Sadly, the number of employees we protect has been shrinking from over 100 thousand workers a decade ago.  One reason for this development is that in the 1980s, it took an average of 10.1 person-hours to produce a ton of steel in the United States, w…