Topic: Free Trade

Is China America’s Biggest Threat? 

– December 10, 2023

“Now is not the time to allocate excessive resources to confront external foes, but to address the fundamental issue plaguing us: a government that refuses to rein in spending of taxpayer money.” ~Vance Ginn

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Defending Globalization

– December 9, 2023

“Only because people are eager to trade with people in different countries do governments feel the need to suppress this trade…Persons who erect these restraints understand that what they impose is not globalization – that would arise naturally – but economic nationalism.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

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What if the First Great Age of Globalization Began 100 Years Earlier?

– December 9, 2023

“Given that the first era of globalization is tied in the imagination of many to rising and converging living standards, this argument amounts to saying that living standards could have surged earlier had free trade been more popular.” ~Vincent Geloso

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The Jobs You Don’t Want to Be Destroyed By Trade Were Created By Trade

– November 13, 2023

“By keeping prices down, and outputs and product varieties up, trade makes every dollar earned go further.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

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Do Shortages Signal the Fragility of Free Trade?

– October 23, 2023

“If protectionism makes supply chains more robust, then we should expect to see that in the data. A quick overview shows, however, that protected industries are more vulnerable to shocks than less-protected industries.” ~Jon Murphy

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Not Only to No Single Person, But to No Council or Senate Whatever

– October 18, 2023

“Some Republicans’ apparent assumption that the American economy would benefit if American companies operated fully within the US badly misperceives the basic realities of globalized trade.” ~David B. McGarry

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Kvetching

– October 12, 2023

“Pundits and politicians who describe free trade as an imposition are either hopelessly ignorant of the meaning of free trade, or they are intentionally portraying it in a false light in order to scare people.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

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The FTC’s Case Against Amazon is a Case Against American Consumers

– October 9, 2023

“Even in an era of inflation, digital markets have had profoundly deflationary effects. Disassembling Amazon’s business model would almost surely dampen this trend.” ~David McGarry

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Lina Khan’s Anti-Progress Paradox

– October 5, 2023

“If Amazon can be sued by the FTC for the success it has achieved in catering to customers and enabling the sales of third-party sellers, what chance does a small business have for crafting its own strategies and having autonomy over its own operations and distribution networks?” ~Kimberlee Josephson

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Wishful (Protectionist) Thinking 

– September 28, 2023

“Specialization and productivity increase when the market’s size extends across national borders. But tariffs reduce the extent of the market and thereby reduce specialization.” ~Paul Mueller

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Beware of Mistaking Artifacts for Economic Realities

– September 21, 2023

“Recognition that the size, or possibly even the very existence, of any measured US trade deficit depends heavily on the accounting conventions used to record international commercial transactions should be sufficient to calm the fears that arise whenever this accounting artifact shows a deficit.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

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The Deficiency of Popular Accounts of the So-Called “Trade Deficit”

– July 5, 2023

“The classification of outputs bought and sold on international markets according to whether these outputs are tangible is no more economically justified than would be the classification of these outputs according to their colors.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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