www.richardhanania.com/p/why-jd-vance-is-both-the-realest
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Republican and Democrat economists all agree on this, as does anyone with a respect for rational thought or data-driven analysis.
This overstates the consensus. Economists do not all agree on trade and immigration: some prominent economists have argued that trade shocks and immigration can significantly harm U.S. workers.
Full reasoning
The sentence claims unanimity among economists, but that is not correct.
There are well-known economists who argue the opposite of the consensus Hanania describes:
- Peter Navarro, identified by PBS News as the PhD economist on Donald Trump’s economic team, argued that China’s entry into the WTO was a central cause of U.S. slow growth, factory closures, wage stagnation, and job losses, and defended tariffs as the remedy. That is plainly not agreement that blaming trade is beyond the bounds of serious economics.
- George Borjas, a Harvard economist and NBER researcher, has published work arguing that immigration can lower the wages of competing workers. For example, an NBER paper by Borjas says that a 10% immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3%.
Those positions may be disputed or minority views, but the claim here is "all agree." Once identifiable economists take contrary positions, that absolute statement is false.
3 sources
- What is the Trump trade doctrine? His economic adviser explains | PBS News
PBS identifies Peter Navarro as the PhD economist on Trump’s economic team. In the interview, Navarro says China’s WTO entry was "the worst political and economic mistake in American history" and blames trade deficits and China for slow growth and job losses.
- The Labor Market Impact of High-Skill Immigration | NBER
"A 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3 percent." — George J. Borjas, NBER Working Paper 11217
- For a Few Dollars Less | George Borjas
Harvard’s George Borjas writes: "As immigration increases the size of a skill group (such as low-educated workers), the wage paid to that group should fall."