Barry Zekelman, chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, gives a puzzling endorsement of the Trump administration’s steel tariffs, offering up his company as a great success story, but providing scant evidence that this success has anything to do with the tariffs.
It’s great that Zekelman believes that the U.S. government taxing the steel he buys is a good thing, but it’s clear that the larger manufacturing industry disagrees and is not benefiting from this protectionist policy.
The Institute of Supply Management’s Purchasing Manager’s Index, the leading indicator of the health of manufacturing, showed in October that the manufacturing sector had contracted for the third consecutive month, the longest contraction since 2015.
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The steel industry has added fewer than 2,000 jobs since the tariffs were imposed in 2018 and now is laying off workers. Steel industry stocks are in the gutter.
It’s not surprising that the domestic steel industry is now suffering. Their customers are steel-using manufacturers.
Because the tariffs hurt their customers, they are buying less steel. The steel industry is learning that when you ask the government to tax your customers, they end up buying less of your product (apparently with the exception of Zekelman’s company).
That’s called basic economics. The data show that the steel tariffs are hurting steel-using manufacturers and are not helping the domestic steel industry.
It’s time for President Donald Trump to lift the tariffs before more damage is done to the economy.
Paul Nathanson, Skokie
Phil Kadner on target again
A shout out to Phil Kadner for his excellent piece “Impeaching is the right thing to do.” His piece reminds me of John Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winner “Profiles in Courage,” in which he highlights those great leaders who had to the courage to do what was morally or ethically right in spite of the political cost.
I find it so sad that today’s leaders are more of a Profile in Cowardice, only caring about the politics of an issue and not about what is morally or ethically right thing to do. Way to go, Phil. And as for the morality of this impeachment, I say negate his hate, defy his lies, dump the Trump. That is the right thing to do.
Tom Plach, Norwood Park
