Ambiguity is an affliction of economics. Will Donald Trump’s new $100,000 application fee for skilled temporary workers on H-1B visas help or harm the US economy?

The White House is not wrong to say that newly qualified US computer science graduates will find the job market easier if companies must pay to hire overseas. But this effect will be offset by damage to the prospects of US companies that used the H-1B visa and their workers, those companies that locate abroad following the new fees, the companies that do not launch or expand for lack of suitable staff and those that benefit from the spending power of workers with H-1B visas. Overall, evidence suggests that the visas improved US living standards, while also slightly lowering wages for those who found new competition in their areas of expertise.

When you add the new visa fees to Trump’s economic canon, however, ambiguity disappears. The president’s second term has so far been an assault on US economic dynamism, with few of the deregulatory or tax-cutting benefits of his first term.