What a ride it’s been. Cato’s Protectionist Madness 2023 put 32 harmful U.S. trade policies in a classic, single‐elimination tournament to let the public decide the worst of the bunch. After seven rounds of voting, 31 matchups, and almost 26,000 votes, we’ve crowned our very first ever Protectionist Madness champion.
It’s the Jones Act, and – as we’ve discussed for years here at Cato – it couldn’t be any more deserving of this “honor.” For those of you just tuning in, here’s how the tournament page summarized the law:
This 1920 law restricts the transportation of goods between domestic ports to vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, and mostly U.S.-owned and ‑crewed. Such ships are few in number (just 90 oceangoing cargo ships comply with the Jones Act) and significantly more expensive to build and crew than international ships. The results are high shipping rates within the United States, generation of more traffic and air pollution, and prevention of effective emergency response in places such as Puerto Rico. Repealing the Jones Act could increase U.S. economic output by up to $135 billion.
This blurb barely scratches the surface of the Jones Act’s many problems but was apparently sufficient to fuel a blowout (68.7%-31.3%) in the Championship match-up against a very worthy rival, Buy American. To read more about the Jones Act’s direct and indirect harms, head over to Cato’s Project on Jones Act Reform, or check out my new op-ed in The Atlantic looking at some of the law’s less-discussed collateral damage.
While we’re happy to see our work highlighting the Jones Act’s problems rewarded with this strong tournament showing, the Jones Act is unfortunately just one of the many U.S. laws that today restrict foreign trade and investment and in the process harm our economy, undermine our national security, and breed political dysfunction. Cato’s Protectionist Madness Tournament was a fun (we hope) way to highlight 32 of these policies, while underscoring just how much protectionism still exists in the supposedly “unfettered” U.S. economy. Here’s how it all went down:
If you missed any of this thrilling action – or are interested in some of the many other ways that American protectionism continues to harm the U.S. economy and burden our daily lives – you can head to the tournament page and click on any matchup to see the results and read about the policies at issue. And, of course, you can learn more about these and other policies at the Cato trade home page or sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay abreast of the latest developments. The tournament picked 32 bad U.S. policies, but unfortunately far more than that – on trade and many other policy issues – are still on the books or being proposed in Congress today.
On the bright side, those policies will be good fodder for another Madness tournament next year. So stay tuned, and thanks for playing.
