Trump's Favorite Think Tank Trade Economist

President Donald Trump often cites a single source when talking about trade statistics: Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).  Now, Scott is saying that tariffs will not bring back lost jobs, a long-held belief of President Trump.  Here is more from Axios:

President Trump's trade war with China won't bring back the jobs lost from the trade deficit with China, according to Robert Scott, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, whose work Trump cited on the campaign trail and during his presidency.

Here is Scott's latest report on China, which was co-authored by Zane Mokhiber.

Here is what Robert Koopman, the chief economist at the World Trade Organization (WTO) has to say about EPI:

The EPI stuff has been off for years but they have an audience that eats it up and good marketing. During the financial crisis the trade deficit dropped like a rock and unemployment rose. It’s kind of like the confusion on why M is subtracted in the GDP equation. https://t.co/ImdRtPmKNH

— Robert Koopman (@RBKoopman) November 3, 2018