Tag Archives: Free Trade

Perhaps the biggest mystery in economic analysis in the last few years has been trying to find an explanation for the big decline in labor force participation since 1999. A recent NBER working paper by Abraham and Kearney has posited the most comprehensive answer to date. Since it was summarized in this Washington Post article, I’m just going to quote a few paragraphs and suggest that you read the entire article.... Angry BearChina, not automation, is by far the biggest factor in the...

Hamilton's Reports, posthumous 1821 edition Stephen Cohen* and Brad DeLong, in their highly readable book Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy (if you haven't, go buy a copy now), argue that “Alexander Hamilton [was a] major economic theorist. His theory of economic development, first set out in his famous Report on Manufactures (1791), not only reshaped America’s economy but was channeled by Frederich List half a century later to play a central role...

Nice post on trade, citing Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor.The Case for Concerted ActionMore Free Trade OrthodoxiesV. Ramanan

The United States mistakenly supported China’s membership of the World Trade Organization in 2001 on terms that have failed to force Beijing to open its economy, the Trump administration said on Friday as it prepares to clamp down on Chinese trade. “It seems clear that the United States erred in supporting China’s entry into the WTO on terms that have proven to be ineffective in securing China’s embrace of an open, market-orientated trade regime,” the administration said in an annual...

Brad DeLong shows how Ricardo's version of economic liberalism based on free trade explained by comparative advantage is bourgeois liberalism that enriches the ownership class. Washington Center for Equitable Growth Ricardo’s Big Idea, and Its Vicissitudes Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley

Maintaining the core-periphery dichotomy of imperialism and colonialism under neoliberalism, Neo-imperialism, and neocolonialism. The Political Economy of DevelopmentThe ‘organised hypocrisy’ of US industrial policyNick Johnson

US declares economic war on China. “The sheer scale of their coordinated efforts to develop their economy, to subsidize, to create national champions, to force technology transfer, and to distort markets in China and throughout the world is a threat to the world trading system that is unprecedented,” Lighthizer said. “We must find other ways to defend our companies, workers, farmers, and indeed our economic system,” he implored. “We must find new ways to ensure that a market-based economy...

Boeing claims huge Canadian government subsidies allowed them to sell a new fleet of planes at substantially less than the market price. ​But David Collins, a professor of international economic law at City University of London, said the case smacked of "double standards." "It's a bit rich of the United States to say that Canada is subsidizing Bombardier, because the US has been doing the same for Boeing for years," Professor Collins told Sputnik. "Lots of industries are subsidized. The...

The BRICS group of emerging economies must promote trade liberalization and an open world economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a business meeting on Sunday at the start of a three-day summit being held in southeastern China.The heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will gather in the city of Xiamen through Tuesday, giving China as host its latest chance to position itself as a bulwark of globalization in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America...

First of all, it requires some study and serious effort.Here is some direct and fascinating evidence from Vox Day, a former libertarian personality who is now an Alt Right blogger, about why he turned against libertarian ideology both on the issues of immigration and free trade:[embedded content][embedded content][embedded content]As we can see, it was the feeble libertarian responses to the problem of free movement of people, and gaping holes in the theory of free trade that did it for Vox...