President Trump's Predecessors Learned about Steel Tariffs the Hard Way

The overall market, measured by the S&P 500, was down by 36 points and by 1.3% today; while the shares of steel-using companies like GM, Ford, and Boeing all fell more than twice that amount, or between 3-4%.

In contrast, US Steel shares soared by nearly 5.8%, which boosted the steelmaker's market cap value by almost half a billion dollars. The costs of protectionism always outweigh the benefits, and the jobs lost always outweigh the jobs saved, and perhaps that net loss of economic value is also reflected in stock market values - the losses in market value suffered broadly by steel-using industries always outweigh the concentrated gains to the firms in the protected industry.