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Supposedly, this is all going to revive domestic manufacturing. But the evidence for that is slim, and it wouldn’t happen overnight—especially not without other policies. At a basic level, tariffs make stuff more expensive.

If the US president-elect’s efforts to eliminate America’s trade deficit succeed, real-estate prices in Miami and Manhattan will crash, the cost of servicing government debt will skyrocket and the Dow Jones will plummet.

Extending the current model of free trade agreements is at odds with a factory renaissance. The trickle of reshoring has raised public hopes, as well as valid doubts about the infallible wisdom the stampede offshore with little appreciation of the needs or potential of. A real renaissance in American manufacturing will require energetic, high-road government intervention with an eye to innovation, not simply fatter paychecks in Guangzhou province.