If you are not collateral damage in the escalating trade wars, the bulletins from the wars' multiplying fronts are hilarious reading. You are collateral damage only if you are a manufacturer, a farmer or a consumer, so relax and enjoy the following reports.

Whirlpool, which manufacturers washing machines and makes demands for government protection, wheedled Washington into imposing tariffs on, and quotas for, imported machines.

Unfortunately for Whirlpool, American steel and aluminum makers horned in on the protectionist fun, getting tariffs — taxes paid by Americans — imposed on imports of those materials that, The Wall Street Journal says, account for most of the weight of 90-kilogram washing machines. And for part of the decline in Whirlpool's share price. And for declining demand for appliances, the prices of which have risen as protectionism increases manufacturing costs and decreases competition.