Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Trump, an economist, a question, and math.

Today, we're going to talk about an economist named Arthur Laffer.

We're going to do this because we've gotten a number of questions about the kinds of economists who say

Trump's tariffs won't be good for America.

And the general idea of the question is that the economists who say the tariffs are bad

are just bad economists, or they're anti-Trump or whatever.

That brings us to Arthur Laffer, who served as an economic advisor

to Reagan. Those are pretty strong conservative credentials for an economist. What did he say about

Trump's tariffs? He wrote a 21-page analysis of the impact of Trump's tariffs on U.S. automakers. In an earlier video,

I said that when you look at most economist estimates, it looks like it would add about $4,500 to the

cost of a car. Laffer says it'll be $4,711 in his analysis. He advocates for exemptions to keep the supply chains from Mexico

and Canada in place under the 2019 USMCA Trade Pact. That's the pact Trump negotiated. Without those

exemptions, he says things will get bad for the U.S. auto industry.

Quote, without this exemption, the proposed tariff risks causing irreparable damage to the industry,

contradicting the administration's goals of strengthening U.S. manufacturing and economic stability.

Here's another quote.

A 25% tariff would not only shrink or possibly eliminate profit margins for U.S.

manufacturers, but also weaken their ability to compete with international rivals.

Basically, he says that if Trump preserved those supply chains his tariffs would still raise prices

about $2,750. But hey, I guess that's better than $4,700, right? But just because Laffer advised Reagan

all those years ago, I guess he could still be an anti-Trumper. Here's another quote for you.

...