The Case for Free Trade is a Unilateral One
The coherent and correct case for free trade is a case for unilateral free trade, one that applies to each country individually.
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Trump Wins the Trade War. Everyone Else Loses
You have to look hard to find good news in this poor excuse for a U.S./China trade deal, but there is this: there is no longer much dispute about the harm the trade war has caused everyone – everyone but the man who will claim to have won it.
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Protectionism Sows the Seeds of Its Own Destruction
While Marx predicted inevitable doom for a system built on the decisions of billions of individuals, we know today that trying to control and plan those decisions is where leaders truly make an economic deal with the devil.
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The Wicked Politics of Cherry Tariffs
If the result of all the efforts of all the economists over all of history results in tariffs that are one percentage point lower than they would otherwise be, we will have earned our keep.
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Evidence that Trade Wars Are Dragging the Economy Down
If the US and the world slide into recession, let no one claim that trade policy and the uncertainty it creates was not a dominant reason.
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On Trade, Both Trump and Warren Get a Fail
When you care about freedom, there are a lot of areas where politicians of both sides are two sides of the same coin.
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Let Them Eat Lobsters
No one knows for sure when or how this will end. But in the meantime, trade warriors in the White House can at least adapt the words of Marie-Antoinette: let them eat lobsters.
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Protectionism and Political Violence
The movie Peterloo offers all of us a chance to learn from history. It reveals the poison of protectionism and how its hidden violence can lead to results that are far worse than anyone anticipates.
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The U.S. Revives the Personal State
“Ordered” — as in, I’m commander in chief, and do as you are told by me, or there will be consequences.
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Is It Obvious Yet that Tariffs Injure Americans?
Tariffs invite retaliation thus ruining export markets in addition to raising prices and tipping small businesses into the failing side of thin margins.
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How Much Damage Will Come from this Trade War?
Trade wars can only be fought with fiscal, monetary, and interventionist regulatory policy tools that hinder and hamper the free choices of all of us, both in the domestic and international marketplaces.
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The Revolution of 1948, and Its Reversal
GATT marked a seachange in economic affairs, the moment when nationalist-style protectionism gave way to international cooperation and the primacy of enterprise. It was the revolution of 1948.
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