Tag: free trade
Free trade brings abundance — protectionism brings scarcity
September 29, 2016 | Post
When it comes to trade, the best US policy, or that of any country, is the elimination of all barriers to imports. This can be done unilaterally. Abundance should always be preferred to scarcity.
Protectionism is Robbery
August 30, 2016 | Post
Protectionism is the belief that domestic producers have a higher claim to your money than you do.
Why a “Job-Killing” Trade Program Deserves Americans’ Support
August 21, 2016 | Post
A preoccupation with jobs over productivity is not sound economics as Professor Mihail Nica explains.
Globalization Isn't Killing Factory Jobs. Trade Is Actually Why Manufacturing Is up 40 Percent
August 5, 2016 | Post
This piece was originally published at the L.A. Times. Foreign trade took a beating at both major party conventions, with speakers blaming free-trade agreements for all but wiping out U.S. manufacturing and eliminating millions of middle-class jobs. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have promised to renegotiate or abandon trade agreements with key U.S. trading […]
Policy Leaders Call This "The Worst Trade Deal Ever Negotiated." Here's How It's Impacting Americans.
July 21, 2016 | Post
According to policy leader Donald Trump, NAFTA is “the worst trade deal ever negotiated” and it needs to be renegotiated. He said, in fact, that it might even be worth the United States pulling out of NAFTA if better terms couldn’t be reached. Why? Trump’s worried that the trade deal is taking jobs away from […]
Everyone Is Ignoring How Free Trade Really Impacts Income Inequality
May 13, 2016 | Post
As the election season heats up, candidates from both sides of the political spectrum seem to agree on one thing: Free trade hurts Americans. There is also a fierce debate about whether—or to what degree—free trade increases income inequality in the country. As commentators continue to disparage free trade (often on products like smartphones, computers, […]
The Logic of Mr. Krugman’s Mercantilism
April 8, 2016 | Post
In this previous post I wrote that “[t]here is yet a deeper economic fallacy that infects Mr. Krugman’s recent defense of mercantilism – a problem that I hope to blog on soon.” What follows is that promised blog post. Mr. Krugman’s most-recent defense of mercantilism boils down to the assertion that the case for free trade […]
Open Letter to Bernie Sanders
March 18, 2016 | Post
Mr. Sanders: In last-night’s debate you said: “I was on a picket line in the early 1990s against Nafta, because you didn’t need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that American workers should not be forced to compete against people in Mexico making 25 cents an hour.” I’m told that you’re a principled man who […]
North Korea: What can the US do?
March 7, 2016 | Post
On Thursday, just hours after the UN passed tough sanctions on North Korea in response to the country’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, North Korea further escalated tensions by firing short-range missiles off its east coast. It’s unclear how effective these sanctions will be; the behavior of North Korea’s government is unpredictable at […]
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: The Immigration Debate
November 2, 2015 | Post
With presidential contenders like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders making a fuss about foreign laborers coming to the country and depressing wages or murdering our women and children immigration reform has once again moved to the front lines of presidential politics. Have you ever wanted to cut through the demagoguery and fear-mongering and get plain […]