With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?
“Unfortunately, the patriotic protectionism story confuses American consumers’ friends and enemies. Our supposed enemies, foreign producers, are actually our friends, and our supposed friends, domestic producers and the US government, are actually our enemies.” ~ Gary M. Galles
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Trade, Debt, and Growth
“What are we getting for this unprecedented debt? Mostly, all it’s purchased for us is political leadership which can only charitably be characterized as mediocre.” ~ Robert F. Mulligan
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Microchips and Potato Chips
“The fact that we produce more Z doesn’t imply that we thereby can afford to acquire and use more Z. This reality is inescapable whether ‘Z’ stands for potato chips or for microchips.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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In Respectful Disagreement with Alex Salter
“While Alex is correct to note that cross-border trade doesn’t ensure against belligerence, it almost certainly does make such belligerence more costly and, hence, less likely. We abandon such trade at our peril.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Lessons from the Tokugawa Shogunate 1603 – 1868
“The impact of the Shogunate was one of stability and unification over the course of the 1600s. The Shogunate established peace and stability after a period of destructive civil war, which in turn allowed commerce and domestic industry to flourish.” ~ Robert F. Mulligan
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The Federal Republic vs. Crony Capitalism
“Taylor believed the economic liberty and virtue of the independent farmer flourished only in a decentralized, republican, and constitutional order. Congress’s rhetoric of the glories gained from governmental intervention threatened that order.” ~ Aaron N. Coleman
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On Hayek’s “Kinds of Order in Society,” Part I
“In ‘Kinds of Order in Society,’ Hayek identified two categorically different kinds of orders – ‘spontaneous orders’ and ‘organizations’ – that are both common and useful to humans.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Is Free Trade Elitist?
“Intellectuals almost always feature prominently on any side of any debate over any issue. Free trade is nothing more, or less, than freedom and fairness. The notion that it is an elitist scheme is a grotesque canard.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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To Fix the Shipping Crisis, Start by Repealing the Jones Act
“The Biden Administration should immediately suspend the Jones Act, at least until the shipping backlog is remedied. That, instead of coddling special interests wielding ludicrous (and arguably long out-of-date) arguments, would be a true ‘gamechanger.'” ~ Peter C. Earle
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Hostility to Free Trade Is Now Officially Bipartisan
“Now, despite nominally battling each other on many issues, on one issue Democrats and Republicans stand united: their bipartisan hostility to free trade.” ~ Raymond C. Niles
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The Secret Tariff Code Heist
“Unfortunately, as long as politicians can profiteer from restricting imports, protectionism will continue reviving. Most of the media continues to ignore the economic carnage resulting from protectionist decrees that, after all these years, still cannot pass the laugh test.” ~ James Bovard
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China’s Export Subsidies Are a Gift
“Misguided retaliation that would eliminate the advantages that cheaper Chinese goods offer would result in unnecessary self-inflicted costs and forgone benefits to the American economy.” ~ Theodore A. Gebhard
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