French economic journalist and satirist Frédéric Bastiat, widely known for his sarcastic opposition to protectionism, observed in the mid-1840s, “In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.”

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