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Category Archives: Trade
The Buffered Economist and the Porous Citizen: How Market Liberalism Mistakes What Human Beings Are
The modern defense of free trade rests on a tacit anthropology that economists rarely acknowledge because it appears to them as common sense. Beneath the language of efficiency, comparative advantage, consumer welfare, and aggregate growth sits a particular image of … Continue reading
Nations At War Often Trade With Each Other
Why are journos and pundits and experts gobsmacked that we have withdrawn sanctions against Iran oil? In reality, countries at war have often traded with each other down through history. The administration argues that this is a form of economic … Continue reading
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The Elite Shift From Free Trade Devotion
Over the past year, the shift among elites away from free trade orthodoxy has hardened into something more than a rhetorical adjustment. What began as cautious talk about “de-risking” and supply chain resilience has become an overt embrace of industrial … Continue reading
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NYT: ‘A Lot of Life Years Lost’: How NAFTA Shortened American Life Spans
The New York Times reports: “A study tracks how the North American Free Trade Agreement and trade competition with Mexico led to earlier deaths for American factory workers.” Trade arguments usually center on GDP figures or consumer prices. This one … Continue reading
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Decoding The Free Trade Debate
ChatGPT says: Alliance Theory treats the free trade debate as a fight over elite coalition power, not GDP spreadsheets. Why elites are not just opposed but contemptuous. Trump tariffs are not merely a policy disagreement. They are a direct attack … Continue reading
Elites Are Sobering Up About Free Trade
Robin Harding’s argument is blunt and mostly right. China is not behaving like a normal trading partner that expects reciprocity over time. It is behaving like a civilization state executing a long plan for autonomy and dominance. Trade, in Beijing’s … Continue reading
Industrial Policy for the United States: Winning the Competition for Good Jobs and High-Value Industries (2024)
Ian Fletcher and Marc Fasteau write: * The US has been losing the international competition for high-value industries and the good jobs, wealth, tax revenues, and national defense capabilities they provide. From 1998 to 2010, 6 million US manufacturing jobs … Continue reading
How Much Money Has Trump Raised Through Tariffs?
Grok says: The revenue generated from tariffs imposed during Donald Trump’s presidency, particularly in his second term starting in 2025, has been significant but varies based on different estimates and timeframes:First Term (2017–2021): During Trump’s first term, tariffs on goods … Continue reading
Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company
Grok says: The book Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee challenges the conventional economist position on free trade by highlighting the complex and potentially destabilizing consequences of Apple’s deep integration with China’s economy. … Continue reading
The best case I’ve read for Trump’s trade policies
I’m not arguing that Trump’s trade policies are good. I’m arguing that there’s close to an even chance they will be good for America. Economist Stephen Miran (Harvard PhD) said April 7: Today I’d like to discuss the United States’ … Continue reading