Tariffs and Trade Restrictions To Save Jobs Pick up a newspaper, especially during a recession or other high unemployment times, and you will probably find at least one article a month about an industry complainig about "unfair" competition from foreign suppliers. If foreign brands were restricted in supply, the argument goes, this would leave more of the American market to American firms and, hence, American workers. Profits, employment, and wages would rise. American firms win. American workers win. What could be better than that? Since I am writing this essay around noon, let me say that this fanciful proposal violates lots of economic laws,