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...
Read More »Ramanan — More Free Trade Orthodoxies
Nice post on trade, citing Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor.The Case for Concerted ActionMore Free Trade OrthodoxiesV. Ramanan
Read More »Reuters — Trump administration says U.S. mistakenly backed China WTO accession in 2001
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...
Read More »Brad DeLong — Ricardo’s Big Idea, and Its Vicissitudes
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
Read More »Nick Johnson — The ‘organised hypocrisy’ of US industrial policy
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
Read More »Asia Unhedged — China represents ‘unprecedented’ threat to world trading system, says US trade czar
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...
Read More »Sputnik International — The Boeing-Bombardier Feud
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...
Read More »China’s Xi says BRICS must promote open world economy
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...
Read More »Why did US Libertarians become disillusioned with Libertarianism?
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...
Read More »NAFTA and Labour Rights
I recently spoke at the Standing Committee on International Trade on their study “Priorities of Canadian Stakeholders having an interest in Bilateral and Trilateral trade in North America, between Canada, United States and Mexico”. I share my notes with you here, although I did ad-lib a bit in the actual committee meeting. ********************** The labour movement is keenly aware that trade is, and always has been, an important feature of the Canadian economy. Many of our jobs depend on...
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